Most Minnesotans are working longer work weeks and taking home less money... but not all...
According to ABC while you and I have worked more than 50 days so far this year, the House (as in John Kline) has worked in Washington just 19 days or a total of 118 hours.
19 days compared to our 50 days...gotta love the work...er...hours.
Thats roughly 38% of the time we put in working. By the end of the year Kline would have worked closer to (almost) 40% of the time compared to a 40 hour a week working American while factoring in vacation and holidays (which most working Americans don't get as benefits) but well, I wanted to be fair!
Kline is entitled to full life long health care and pension.
On the base salary of $165, 200 per year (lets leave the 'perks' out for now), Kline gets roughly $1,700 a day, or $213 an hour. For the record, federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. Naturally that's if John Kline is there when the House is in session...about one-quarter of the year. Last year I attended a House session on two different days, Kline wasn't there but..I wasn't there all day and things can often get in the way...like golf courses, private lunches with lobbyists, personal appointments, tournaments, committee meetings, or 'fact finding' missions.
Slate has an eye-opening report on where our Reps. spend thier time.
John Kline probably does other things he considers work... for instance campaigning and fundraising. Based on the money Kline brings in from special interest PACs (40%), John's not at the local county fair or coffee shop as much as he's with big donors at country clubs and attending $1,000 plate dinners . That usually results in trading tips..or favors...aboard lobbyist corporate jets, or on golf courses, much like Kline's close friend and reform House Majority Leader John Boehner did at least 45 times in the past four years, according to a report released last week by the Center for Public Integrity.
Yeah, that's the same John Boehner who last month "ran an insurgent campaign calling for change in the face of a widening corruption scandal" to become the new House Majority Leader. The same John Boehner that Kline supports!
Maybe we can ask John Kline to show up for more work somthing along the line of - half the amount of time that nurses, teachers, cops and firefighters make it to the workplace. Most of us do it for far less than half the amont of money, about 1% of the perks and generally with poor or no health insurance coverage to boot.
Let's get John within hailing distance at least of the average Minnesotan worker, then maybe he'll start to represent our interests.
Hat tip to SusanG over at KOS
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