Hypocrisy, Congress Is Thy Name

[AUTailgatingRules]

Congress giving out "taxpayer" funded bonuses to their own staffers.  What a bunch of bumbling idiots.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123854799133476409.html

[AUTiger1]

Capitol Hill bonuses in 2008 were among the highest in years

Last year alone, more than 200 House lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, awarded bonuses totaling $9.1 million to more than 2,000 staff members, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of office-disbursement forms. The money comes out of taxpayer-funded office budgets, and is surplus cash that would otherwise be forfeited if not spent.

Payments ranged from a few hundred dollars to $14,000. Lawmakers, at their own discretion, gave the money to chiefs of staff, assistants, computer technicians, and more than 100 aides who earned salaries of more than $100,000 a year.

I think it goes without saying that this pisses me off. 

[AUTailgatingRules]

Bonuses at an all time high

Congress' approval rating at an all time low

I thought bonuses were supposed to be performance driven??????

[AUTiger1]

Bonuses at an all time high

Congress' approval rating at an all time low

I thought bonuses were supposed to be performance driven??????

Funny how that works.  5 out of 5 years at my company, I have been one of the ones on the contract that I work on to receive a year end bonus.  Every year, I walk in the PM's office, he hands me a statement for a payroll deposit, says "thanks", and then when I am walking out the door he says "thanks for busting your ass on <insert system or project name>"....every year he says those exact same words.  Now some here don't get a bonus, and they don't do shit, but more than likely could if they did something. Once our numbers are crunched we run in the green every year and are always the biggest profit gainer by % for our company. They could have a little bit of that if they would just do something but they are content with surfing teh intrawebz for 8 hrs a day and going home. 

If congress thought there approval ratings were low now, wait until Nov 2010.  They may find themselves a rating of 0 when they are voted out of office.

[Tarheel]

Very poetic and apropos title for this thread "AUTR"; I really don't like to see anybody out of work due to layoffs but I hope that all of these fucking hypocrites find themselves out of a job in 2010.

How can these bums sit on Capitol Hill passing out bonuses to their staffers while vilifying and demonizing AIG (and other businesses) for doing the same?  (meant as rhetorical)

Great article.