Poor Congresspeople — We’ve all seen lists of the richest congresspeople, but there are some for the poorest among them as well.
Can there really be poor people in Congress? The congressional salary, after all, is $174,000 not including benefits.
“The 10 on our list have millions in debt among them — from business loans to credit cards to unpaid attorney fees related to an impeachment,” RollCall.com explains. The site notes, however, that determining “minimum net worth is an inexact science” and that several on the list have multiple homes and other assets not generally associated with the poor.
Roll Calls 10 poorest members of Congress in 2015 are:
Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) -$8.7 million
Rep. Alcee L Hastings (D-FL)-$2.2 million
Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL)- $1.3 million
Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) -$1.3 million
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) -$907,000
Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX) -$896,000
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-M)-$813,000
Sen. Matin Heinrich (D-NM)-$723,000
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) -$713,000
Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA) -$700,000
Palmer Gibbs of InsideGov.com has also compiled a list of the poorest albeit with 25 names. Some are the same, some are not and the order and valuations are different. It contains explanations for Valado’s and Hastings’ problems — namely Valado’s family dairy farm debt and Hastings 1988 bribery impeachment as a federal judge — who again hold the the first and second places.
While Fattah is the only Philly area rep that Roll Call lists, InsideGov omits him but includes Chester County’s Rep. Ryan Costello (R-6) in 11th place with a worth of -$47,944 and Philadelphia’s Brendan Boyle (D-13) in 17th with a worth of -$24,997.
Dueling US Navy — Dueling was a serious problem in the U.S Navy back in the day. Between 1798 and the Civil War it lost two-thirds as many officers to it as to combat at sea.
Penncora Decorated Parkway For Pope –Penncora, the excellent Phoenixville design firm run by Barbara Bater, provided the flowers for the Papal stages on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway for Pope Francis’ visit last September.
Constitution? We don’t need no stinkin’ Constitution.
Dems Save Kathleen Kane — The Pennsylvania Senate, yesterday, Feb. 10, fell four votes short of the two-thirds needed to removed a disgraced person who shamelessly ignores the law as the state’s top law enforcement officer.
In fairness the vast majority of senators — the vast majority being Republican — did realize that Kathleen Kane should be removed as attorney general. The 29-19 vote though was just not quite enough.
Choosing party over principle, all Democrats except Bob Teplitz of the 15th District voted to protect her. They were joined by Republican Stewart Greenleaf of the 2nd District, who may as well be a Democrat considering his voting history.
Ms. Kane is facing charges of perjury, false swearing, three counts of obstructing administration of law, and four counts of official oppression relating to allegations that she leaked grand jury information to the press.
The senators protecting Ms. Kane say she shouldn’t be removed because she had been elected and that her duties were managerial so forget the law and let this person remain as head of law enforcement.
And that political leaders could make this claim with a straight face is why people across the political spectrum have acquired the feelings they do regarding the political class.
Further, if the shoe were on the other foot and it was the removal of a Republican being sought for the same reasons, every one of the D’s who had voted to save Ms. Kane would have voted otherwise. We think most of the R’s would have actually voted consistently even if it was just to save themselves from the inevitable media outrage which is not going to happen in this case.
New Wolf Budget Also Burdens Little Guy By Matthew J. Brouillette
Yesterday, Feb. 9, Gov. Wolf doubled down on his tax-and-spend agenda. Here are five facts you need to know about how Gov. Wolf’s budget would affect your family and our state:
1. It’s more of the same. Wolf’s proposed budget mirrors what he repeatedly offered—and lawmakers repeatedly rejected—last year: Massive tax hikes and record spending increases.
2. It’s the biggest spending increase in 25 years. Wolf’s $33.3 billion General Fund budget (including pension payments) represents a 10% increase over the budget passed by the legislature in December and is the bgigest spending increase since 1991-92.
3. Wolf’s tax hike = $850 more per family four annually.
4. Wolf’s budget includes $1.1 billion more for public schools, on top of the record-high level of funding passed by the legislature in December. This comes with no accountability measures and with punitive cuts to public charter schools.
5. At least eight different tax hikes are in the budget. This includes an 11% personal income tax hike—retroactive to January 2016 (in other words, you already owe the state more taxes).
Wolf talked about ‘saving’ the taxpayers of Pennsylvania. Instead, he’s taxing us backwards and forwards.
Business As Usual Gets Spanked In New Hampshire — Those OK with business as usual in Washington got a severe spanking in New Hampshire last night, Feb. 9.
In the Democrat presidential primary, socialist outsider Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont crushed Hillary Clinton 60 percent to 38 percent.
Yes Mrs. Clinton, Bernie said “live free” and you died. The whole house came down on your head. You could almost hear the little people singing “ding dong” as they danced and pointed the way to the Yellow Brick Road.
In second place, was John Kasich whose 16 percent of the vote got him three delegates. Kasich was a congressman for 22 years including six years as chairman of the House Budget Committee before declining to run for re-election in 2000. After stints as a Fox News commentator and as an investment banker, he re-entered politics in 2010 winning the Ohio gubernatorial election. He easily won re-election in 2014. His strong finish last night is being attributed to a strong debate performance.
Kasich is a native of Pennsylvania. If he should win the White House, it would the first time a native of the state held the presidency since the disgraceful James Buchanan in 1861.
Ted Cruz, who as gotten under the skin of just about every Washington insider in his first term as Texas senator, came in third with 12 percent of the vote giving him two delegates.
Getting under the skin of Washington insiders is a good thing.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush got 11 percent of the vote which also netted him two delegates in his hopefully Quixotic quest to continue the family dynasty.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio finished fourth with also about 11 percent of the vote but got zero delegates. He was followed by New York Gov.Chris Christie at 8 percent; businesswoman Carly Fiorina, exposure to whom the establishment media wants to minimize as she is a woman who could actually handle the job, at 4 percent; surgeon Ben Carson, at 2 percent; and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul at 1 percent despite dropping out of the race. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum got token votes despite also have dropped out.
Turnout was record-setting in the Republican race whereas it was down on the D side.
There is still a long way to go as 1,144 delegates are needed to win the GOP nomination and 2,382 are needed to lead the Democratic ticket.
Donna Ellingsen, an anti-corruption committeewoman from Elks Township.
Chesco Inquisition Postponed Again — The inquisition being sought by the leaders of the Chester County Republican that appears to be part of a purge of anti-corruption activists has again been postponed this time at the request of party bosses
The most recent scheduling had been for Thursday, Feb. 11.
Four committeepeople — Jane Ladley, Tom Ferro, Steve Mobley and Donna Ellingsen — are accused of violating party bylaws for supporting candidates other than the nominated ones.
