Bad Deeds for 12-19-2011

 

Rick Perry Starts Drawing $90,000 Annual Retirement while Teachers and Other State Workers Suffer – Rick Perry — who isn’t stepping down as governor — nevertheless was able to officially “retire” this year for benefits purposes, a move that gives him about $90,000 more in annual retirement compensation on top of his $150,000 salary as governor.

The move may open him up to criticism from rivals, who can point to Mr. Perry’s recent suggestions that the retirement age for Social Security and the age eligibility for Medicare be raised — two government programs that many older Americans depend on to make ends meet.

The Perry campaign disclosed the information in Mr. Perry’s newest filing with federal election regulators.

The governor defended his pension decision at a campaign stop Friday in Cherokee, Iowa.

“That’s a program that’s been in place for decades as far as I know,” he said at a coffee shop. “I would be surprised why someone would not take a retirement they were eligible for. That’s just kind of good estate planning in my opinion.”

The Texas Democratic Party blasted Mr. Perry’s move as nothing more than an on-the-job pay raise while state workers were being fired for budget reasons.

“When you start getting more money from your employer while also continuing to receive your salary, that’s called a raise,” a Democratic Party spokesman, Anthony Gutierrez, said. “Somehow this Republican budget doesn’t have room to pay teachers but they can give Rick Perry a $100k pay raise. If Perry wants retirement benefits he should do us all a favor and actually retire. Giving himself a raise while thousands of teachers are losing their jobs is unconscionable.”

NO TEXAS OFFICIAL HAS EVER DONE THIS. “Regular employees who retire and return to work get their pension frozen and don’t accrue additional years of service — and those people are strongly criticized as being double-dippers and trying to exploit a unique situation, ” said Mike Gross, head of the Texas State Employees Union.

 

Republicans Causing Backlogs in Courts by Holding Up Judicial Nominees – With just days left in the Senate’s 2011 calendar, there are still 21 judicial nominees waiting for their final floor votes.
Here are the shocking figures on nominations and confirmations over the last month:

• 21 pending nominees
• 19 with very strong bipartisan support
• 16 unopposed in committee
• 9 to fill judicial emergencies
• 1 confirmed this week

All Americans rely on the courts to protect our rights. Now it’s time for the Senate to simply do its job and hold votes on all pending nominees.

Click here to send a message to your Senators and the Senate leaders. Tell them that the obstruction and partisan games must end.

 

Republican Party is Extreme and Uncompromising According to Poll of American People – According to the latest Pew Research polling, the Republican leaders are being more and more seen as the root of government’s failure to accomplish anything, and the party is almost twice as often viewed as “extreme and uncompromising” in compared to the Democrats.

“The Republican Party is taking more of the blame than the Democrats for a do-nothing Congress. A record-high 50% say that the current Congress has accomplished less than other recent Congresses, and by nearly two-to-one more blame Republican leaders than Democratic leaders for this. By wide margins, the GOP is seen as the party that is more extreme in its positions, less willing to work with the other side to get things done, and less honest and ethical in the way it governs. And for the first time in over two years, the Democratic Party has gained the edge as the party better able to manage the federal government,” according to the poll.

 

Why Do Our Laws Favor the Ultra-Rich? –

42% of our U.S. Representatives and 43% of U.S. Senators are in the top 1% of wealth.

63% of our U.S. Representatives and 83% of U.S. Senators are in the top 10% of wealth.

 

Republican Mythical Billionaire Job-Creators Just Can’t Be Found – The Republicans have substituted “job creator” for the word “rich” in discussions of tax policy. It is absolute standard practice for them to object to taxing people who have money by saying that this will reduce job creation.

Since this claim has become so central in policy debates, Morning Edition decided to do what any reasonable news organization might do: see if it is true. Morning Edition called the Republican party and asked to be put in contact with some tax burdened job creators. They were unable to provide anyone for NPR to interview. NPR then contacted several of the business lobbies who have been complaining that higher taxes would impede job growth. These organizations were also unable to find any job creators who would speak to NPR.

NPR then put in a request to talk to job creators on Facebook. It got several responses from small business owners. The ones featured on its segment said that the personal tax rate would affect their disposable income but would have no effect on their hiring. This is pretty much what economic theory would predict.

 

Palin Guilty of Major Ethics Act Violation: Must Return $386,000 in Contributions – “Nearly a year after she quit her governorship of Alaska, Sarah Palin was found guilty today of another breach of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act involving her so-called Alaska Fund Trust (AFT), which she established as a private ‘legal defense fund’ while governor.

Regards,

Jim