Politics as usual

I decided I would need to add a new category to my blog today – Politics. As I was adding it, I had the option of making it a subset of an already existing category. The thought crossed my mind to make it a subset of my venting category. The thought struck me as funny. So for now, politics will be something specific I vent about. It seems fitting.

The Utah Legislature is giving themselves a raise again. I wish I could do that, instead of waiting for the Utah Legislature to give me a raise. They should only be allowed to give themselves a raise if every other government and public works employee gets an equal raise. So that would mean all police, fire fighters, teachers, all of them.

The newspaper ran an article today detailing the raise, as well as all of the other add-ons the politicians give themselves. For today’s blog, I will go through and detail all the things that seem wrong with that. To read the article: 7.7% Pay Hike is Pushed for Utah’s Legislators.

• The politicians get $54 a day for food. What in the world are they eating? That’s about half my monthly budget for food. We have how many starving people in this state? It would make more sense for them to just turn in receipts, but only for those meals that actually relate to business. And they need to justify the business that occurred.
• The politicians get $90 a day for hotels, even if they sleep at home. That’s just wrong right there. I understand that many of them come in from all parts of the state for the 45 days of the session and they could probably use a hotel rather than a 2-3 hour drive each way every day. But all the ones who sleep at home, should not be compensated for something they are not using. If they want the money, it should be specified that they must use it on a hotel, and a homeless person has to share the room with them.
• The politicians are paid for every day of the 45 day session, even though 2 out of every 7 days (Saturday and Sunday) they aren’t working. I don’t get paid for not going to work.
• The politicians claim that they work more than just those 45 days and so it really isn’t as much money as it seems. Today is Friday. I do not work on Friday. Yet this is the third Friday in a row that I spent almost the entire day at work, not getting paid for it. Not to mention the evenings I work, also that I am not paid for. Suck it up politicians!
• Utah politicians’ pay ranks in the bottom half of part-time politicians across the nation. Utah teachers’ pay ranks at the bottom of teachers across the nation. Makes ya’ wonder where their values are.
• The news station is even reporting that it is a study that recommends this raise. How about if someone studies other salaries in Utah to see if they don’t deserve a raise first? Study Finds State Lawmakers Need Raise. Do they need it because everyone else is getting it or because they actually need it? Do they need to jump off a cliff because everyone else is, or just because they actually need to?
• If they are given extra money, I think it should be to pay for some math tutoring. Because how they can think they are still in line with what their constituents want by voting for vouchers, when 2 out of every 3 of their constituents voted against vouchers, it’s just beyond me.