11 Things Wrong With Congress

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what can be done to stop the cost of living for the congress I am a senior citizen I rec. 18cents increase this year per month that is after a two years of no increase. when I was working I saved and saved but the dollar I saved is only worth a nickel today. I see people getting disability while they have the ability to do manual labor and work on ladders and every thing else that does not look disabled to me. I am so tired of the fighting if my kids said the things and fought like they do they would get a smack on the butt grounded and sent to there room or added a pack of extra chores

e jester of IL 1:51PM March 03, 2013

To quick to push the ink. Do more research, this article is littered with errors and lacks any sense of intelligence or real knowledge of why many of the occurrences are in place

anonymous of IA 1:04AM January 31, 2013

I agree with most points, except:
"Gold plated benefits" - Since they represent us, congress should be given the same pay and perks. And given how companies used to pay workers more, and with pensions, but then shifted to 401k and other plans, are we asking congress to now live the life of the people they represent? Of course, who they represent is good to know as well.
"A lack of competition" - given how congress can be lobbied by external influences for perks, competition won't do any good. Never mind the only way that "a lack of competition" can be perceived is competing countries and how they treat their citizens. So, if you wanted to live on 50 cents an hour, go find the competition. I'm not saying that to you directly, but that's what you're suggesting - if people used the competition...

RTC1 of MN 3:14PM May 28, 2012

You are SOOOOOOO right. Great reporting Rick, keep up the good work and news.

Sugarpye of LA 10:22AM October 24, 2011

The big fight in congress right now, is obama trying to go socialist and the reps trying to stay capitalists.....

ken anderson of NM 12:37PM October 17, 2011

We should be asking questions about the CAFR and the abundance of assets that we the people own. They give us a projected collection of taxes and a projected budget which is always more than the projection of tax collection and that gives us our deficit. What they hide from us is the fact that we have assets. Trillions of dollars worth of assets in fact. That is our money because those assets were earned by tax payer dollars. They create wars as a way to redistribute that wealth. It is a way to fool the public into thinking we need to pay more in taxes when in actuality that is our money and we as Americans and taxpayers should stop them. We need to hold them accountable for this.

Roberta Bebko of FL 5:28PM October 16, 2011

I work for a company that has 3,000 jobs available, and more coming. There are several companies like this in the U.S. altogether we estimate there are about two to three million such jobs in our country going without workers.
There is beginning to be a clamor for H1Visa workers - again.
Why? We can't find enough people educated in math, science, technology to fill the positions. Today our citizens study such relevant twenty-first century subjects as Social Science, religious studies, gender studies, on and on. Psychology is a great major, but generally requires an advanced degree, and seldom prepares the over-abundance of graduates for jobs in the real world.
We are close to last among the developed nations in math and science, as compared to the decades in which we led the world. Yet our young people are arrogant and ignorant about their own competency and importance in the world.
Non-achievement is not considered bad these days, and compared to the days when all teens got jobs in the summer, relatively few college-bound find jobs these days.
The child "feeling good about himself" has replaced the notion that self esteems comes from achieving, the reasons go on and on.
As a former educator, I watched things like the cult of soccer become more important than academics, and listened to parents who preferred to believe that their child could not get into college without being busy every second of the day while maintaining an A average. None of this is true, unless one is aiming for the relatively few slots in the very upper echelon of big name schools. I would ask my students whe they had time to day dream. Answer: Never.
On top of that, their parents believe the student really is spending hours on their homework (that should really be spent on the soccer field), when in fact, the student has Facebook on, and fits the homework in amonst the need to instantly respond to any communication that pops up on the screen.

Evagneline Brabant of CA 5:23PM October 14, 2011

There is only ONE problem with Congress. The members.

walkman56 of MA 1:18AM October 12, 2011

A GOVERNMENT BY THE FILTHY-RICH-FOR-THE-FILTHY-RICH!
"WE-THE-PEOPLE"= ARE-NO-MORE!
we just get more unconsented sex from the government which we support with our BLOOD-MONEY!
A-GOVERNMENT-BY-THE-PEOPLE-FOR-THE-PEOPLE?? >>>>>>>>in-your-WET-dreams! ROTFLMFAOOOOOOO
when do the people stop and think??
when do the people develope balls??
WHEN DOES THE NEWS MEDIA WAKEUP??
without people NEWS DOES NOT SELL!!

oldfarmer of KS 2:00AM October 09, 2011

This article is absolutely RIGHT...how do we as individual combat this?
We need to get organized, educated and have a voice, but still are combating a system that is sooooooooo powerful I fear it cannot be "undone". They also have too much money to throw at the reelection of the Congress..

Nancy of CA 7:14PM October 05, 2011