They did sacrifice one thing… The congressional barber shop is closed. Horrors, think of the comb overs!
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It would require politicians to vote for it, and therein lies the rub.
And now you can take a giant step back, CerebralFungus. The CDC is doing just fine, because…wait for it…GYM! Yep. They have one. Want to bet it’s fully operational?
After all, we can’t have people monitoring salmonella outbreaks in Thailand without on-site cardio and light therapy, can we?
I like the last pope’s solution for the cardinals spending way too long on an election. After a few days, reduce them to bread and water. After that, no food until they elect someone.
Can the americans do the same thing with their politicians please? Lock them in the house with no food. Or at least send them to bed with no supper like the petulant children they’re being.
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The man doesn’t understand the concept of solidarity, what do you expect?
He’s an elitist prick 1%er and everything belongs to him.
He never played well with others.
He never understood the concept of respecting other people’s property.
He’s a bully.
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The Aristocrats is precisely how he sees himself.
The 1%ers get baronial privilege and the 99%ers are supposed to be glad for the opportunity to kowtow to their whims.
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Swedish riksdagsledamöter (members of parlament) has quite a few perks. They do for example get their rent paid in full if they get nicer apartments than the ones shown in the video. However they did recognize that they had given themselves too generous pensions. So they decided to make a sacrifice. Future MPs will get a normal pension, while the current system is kept for sitting MPs…
You’re suggesting that they would hold themselves to the same standard to which they hold their opponent. Thank you for that early morning giggle.
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Let’s complain about this in the internet! That’ll show them.
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I think you’re missing the point. The outrage isn’t that congress has a gym, it’s that they’ve deemed its continued operation more “essential” than countless other vital government programs they’re forcing to shut down.
And yes, I would be surprised and disappointed if I learned that CDC director Thomas Frieden specifically deemed his private gym staff more “essential” than other programs at the center.
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I reckon that’s a self-preservation gambit. Diminishing the future perks and prospects of new-hire MPs will reduce the competition to the sitting MPs.
Doesn’t sound very Swedish!
TANF non-essential, congress’s private health club, essential…the fuck is wrong with this country
The voters, that’s what wrong with this country. I just looked, and 180,000 people thought Michelle Bachman was worth electing in the last election, vs 178,000 for someone I’d never heard of. If you want to blame someone, blame those who make it possible, not those who take advantage of what the voters gave them.
Don’t like the Republicans? Feel the Dems are just as bad, but continue to vote for them rather than a third party alternative? YOU are the problem, not the solution. Doing the same thing, time after time, and expecting change? That’s not smart, is it?
Because we’re a democratic republic not a monarchy?
OTOH, a Tea Party representative was being on the CBC last week. She claimed, and I quote, America is “a republic, not a democracy”.
My expectation is that Feldon’s gym is fully operational. Because Public Health, Public Official. Setting a Good Example is essential, right?
And no, I do not think I missed the point. Congress does more publicly what our other officials do slightly less in our faces. You can’t just walk into their headquarters and see it, because theirs tend to be locked down and not as much press.
Do you think any of them would fall for it if somebody were to quietly add a killer new exercise device, 100% guaranteed to get the blood moving, to a corner of the gym?
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Have you looked at Bachmann’s district on a map? It’s got a, shall we say…interesting shape to it. Many have gone so far as to describe her district boundaries as Gerrymandered. Finding 178,000 people voting against her represents an interesting sea-change in a district that was specifically drawn to ensure Republican representation for the next decade, minimum. In this specific example, it’s not the voters that are to blame; it is the people who controlled the redistricting process in Minnesota.
Shall we talk about Lamar Smith of Texas next?
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Democracy? Republic? I thought we were corporate feudalism at this point.
Warning, video link above contains strong language and adult themes
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How about you find some actual evidence that the gym staff at the CDC were retained while other CDC employees were furloughed before you trot out such a silly false equivalence. I’m not buying your half-assed defense of congress based on what other forms of corruption might be happening elsewhere.
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