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Pelosi Reaches Into Taxpayer Pockets On Her Way Out as Speaker

Pelosi Reaches Into Taxpayer Pockets On Her Way Out as Speaker

Pelosi Reaches Into Taxpayer Pockets On Her Way Out as Speaker

Even as the year draws to an end, soon-to-be-former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi takes another swipe against American taxpayers. For the second time this year, she’s raised the ceiling on how much House staffers can make. Funny how she waited to make the announcement until the last working day of the year, a time when Congress is in recess. Gee, I wonder if she felt the need to outdo President Biden and the omnibus bill that had to be flown to him in St. Croix earlier this week.

A bit of near history. In August 2021, Pelosi raised the maximum salary for House staffers to $199, 300, up from $173,900. Earlier this year, she once again raised staffers’ maximum pay to $203, 700. I don’t know about you, but I’d be pretty darned happy with these two raises. I certainly wouldn’t be clamoring for more money so soon. Not that the staffers needed to. Yesterday, Pelosi raised the ceiling again. This time to $212,100. If my math’s right, that means a possible $38,000 raise in less than two years.

Damn, I wish I could get a raise like that.

Consider this: while the outgoing (yay!) Speaker is handing out raises of thousands of dollars to House staffers, our senior citizens who rely on Social Security are getting a minimal raise in payments this year and much of that raise will go to pay for the increase in their Medicare premiums.

If that’s not enough to make you at least pause as you consider Pelosi’s 23rd hour play, think about this:

That means some top staffers will be in the position of earning more money than their bosses. Rank-and-file members of Congress earn $174,000 annually, while certain members of congressional leadership have higher salaries. The House Speaker earns $223,500, while the majority and minority leaders in both chambers, as well as the Senate president pro tempore, earn $193,400.

Now, I think we’re overpaying most members of our federal government. But to think we are paying House staff members more than our elected officials. . . .

But Nancy has an excuse–pardon me, an explanation–for why this is necessary.

As you know, our hard-working, patriotic congressional staffers are integral to the functioning of the House of Representatives,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to House lawmakers, adding “to that end, we must do all we can to retain and recruit the best talent in our nation — and to build a congressional workforce that reflects the communities we are honored to serve.”

I guess that beats her explanation for the earlier pay raise when she said it was to “expand the diversity of backgrounds and perspectives among the staff.” Or the raise before which was to prevent them from jumping ship “for higher-paying jobs at lobbying groups or in the executive branch.” Inquiring minds want to know if she was really concerned about keeping these staffers working for House members or if she wanted to do what she could to keep them from competing with outgoing House members who might want to join the lobbying groups.

And heaven help those poor staffers who might be so deluded or misguided that they actually want to work for the executive branch. (I swear if I roll my eyes much harder, they will fall out and I’ll be hard pressed to get them back before the cats start playing with them.)

I probably shouldn’t be surprised by anything Her Hautiness, the wannabe Queen of San Fran, does.

That proposal to allow House staffers to unionize was announced at the same time as the earlier pay raise this year. It didn’t take the House long to pass the bill. Fortunately, the Senate has not yet followed suit.

So now we have House staffers who potentially make more than their bosses. We have, as recently as this past week, a majority members of the House of Representatives filing paperwork to allow them to vote by proxy on the $1.7 trillion spending bill. Thank you, San Fran Nan, for undermining our confidence in the House, for reaching deep into our pockets every chance you get and for showing that you don’t value your fellow members of the House as much as you do certain members of the House staff.

Please, Mrs. Pelosi, shuffle on through the door. Be sure to hand your gavel off on the way out. If we’re lucky, you won’t think of anything else you can do to screw the nation over before the next Congress convenes.

Featured Image created using Midjourney AI by Amanda S. Green.

 

 

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4 Comments
  • […] post Pelosi Reaches Into Taxpayer Pockets On Her Way Out as Speaker appeared first on Victory Girls […]

  • Kevin says:

    I have to start out all responses to VG with … Hypocrisy, short on facts and long on hyperbole, basically, just another poorly researched blog post with the intent of ginning up the rabid base. Facts are few and far between.

    Just doing a little “google search” (5 minutes at the most) you come up with this information … You need about $143,000 to “live comfortably” in Washington, DC. To live comfortably in U.S. capital, you’ll need to earn around $143,200 if you’re paying a mortgage and $122,900 if you’re renting. That’s an increase of 50.8% and 30.4%, respectively, since 2016. Ohio University indicates that pay can vary by position, experience, party lines and between the Senate and House. The average Congressional aide salary can range from $20,000 to $50,000 a year. The highest paid congressional staffers earn yearly salaries coming in at $60,000 or higher. Salaries often increase by length of employment, meritorious service, or both.

    Having spent a considerable amount of time in Washington DC speaking to congressional staff advocating for funding for mental health services, the vast majority of staff are barely out of college; most of whom are still wearing diapers. It’s shocking to see how young congressional staff are and the level of importance of their jobs. I doubt many of these staff are making more than $60K a year. The ones being paid the high salaries … chief of staff to the representative/senator, administrative director, communications director, state director. You can see from a report issued in 2021 (which the writer of this one-sided, smear piece … which is her intention) failed to reference … which anyone with a third grade education could have found … is here https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44324. It goes into quite a bit of detail about the position, skills required, comparable rates of pay and other FACTS (a word VG so rarely uses) about congressional staff pay.

    Do I think anyone deserves to make $200,000 a year. No, I don’t. Do I think the chairman or CEO of a large corporation deserves to make multimillions of dollars a year. No, I don’t. I’ve lived frugally all my life and have done well given the opportunities offered to me (education, employment, fiscal responsibility). It appears VG’s is in the same boat … leaning more towards socialist tendencies versus a “free market” system. Hmmm, who would have ever thought we would end up with the same conclusion albeit by way of a much different route.

    You also might want to be careful about “bad mouthing” unions given that white, blue collar, many of whom are in unions, are now swinging towards voting republican. Didn’t a good number of republicans excoriate Biden for stepping in to the railway negations to side with management? Pick your side of the road … you can’t drive on both.

    If the republicans are so hell bent on increasing staff wages, each one of them, on their own, could place a cap on what they are willing to pay for congressional staff. I doubt any will. .

    Hypocrisy … just another day at the VG blog.

  • […] of the Marketplace Transterrestrial Musings: EVs, The Covid Cult, and Hallelujah Victory Girls: Pelosi Reaches Into Taxpayer Pockets On Her Way Out as Speaker, Ray Epps “Orchestrated” January 6, and McCarthy Negotiates With GOP Holdouts Volokh […]

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