August 29, 2011 by David K. Sutton
Massive Disconnect
In addition to the huge income gap in this country we also have a massive disconnect. That massive disconnect exists between those lucky enough to have a good paying job and the plight of the rest of the country. To put it another way, there are some people in this country that are so self-absorbed that they inflate their own minor problems while failing to see the serious hardship faced by many. Take for example Steve Southerland, a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He gave a speech last week in which he complained that his $174,000 congressional salary wasn’t enough to make ends meet.
if you took the hours that I work and divided it into my pay … the $174,000 salary would not seem so high.
I think about half the country – and that is probably an understatement – would disagree. There are tens of millions of people out of work in this country. There are many millions more that are truly living paycheck to paycheck. Since this new congress took office in January they have done nothing to get people back to work. Not one jobs bill. Instead the focus has been on things like defunding Planned Parenthood and NPR. Add on top of that a member of congress complaining that he isn’t being paid enough and it’s not hard to figure out why congress now has the lowest approval rating since they started polling that question.
We need members of congress to start thinking more about who they serve instead of their own personal interests. They were not elected to congress to complain about their salary. They were elected to congress to serve their constituents and to move this country forward. We can only hope that members of congress like Steve Southerland are term limited by the voters next election day.
Not to pick on one congressman alone. Check out the article – Are members of Congress paid enough – to see that Mr. Southerland is not alone in contributing to the massive disconnect.
