We're Tired And We Want Our Money Back

In the midst of a story about the worthless, do-nothing GOP Congress deciding to end the session the way they ran it the rest of the two years, by leaving half a trillion dollars of annual spending bills on the table and leaving town three weeks early, Mike Pence, the golden boy of the conservative movement, the bright shining face of the Republican Party, the man who is, we are told, the REAL DEAL conservative in the Congress, had this to say.

"There is a lot of battle fatigue among members, probably on both sides of the aisle," said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), usually a reliable conservative firebrand. "Contrary to popular belief, members of Congress are human beings. They have a certain shelf life and a certain amount of energy to be drawn on. We're tired."

I know I'd be exhausted if I had to work 95 whole days a year to earn my $165,000 annual salary. Was it the 5 weeks off in the summer that tuckered him out, or not starting the session until February, or maybe shuttling back and forth to his district after two or three days of work on Capitol Hill? Those plane rides away from your job and off to your vacation do make you sleepy.

Writing at Crooks and Liars, Glenn Greenwald agrees:

So Mike Pence made $165,000 on the public dole this year as a prominent part one of the laziest, most worthless Congresses in our country's history. And now he is whining that he's too "tired" and "fatigued" to show up for work and do his job, so he and his Republican colleagues are just going to go ahead and give themselves the rest of the year off — in a so-called "time of war" no less. They'll continue to take their salaries.

We're definitely tired. Tired of rank Republican incompetence, corruption, arrogance, and flat-out laziness. The events of November 7th are a direct outgrowth of how tired we in the country were.

I think there's value in asking Republican members of Congress, whose leadership set the schedule for the 109th Congress (Democrats had no power to keep Congress open in 2006), to prorate their salary based on the number of days worked. A normal American works 50 weeks a year, 5 days a week. That's 250 days. Members of Congress worked 95 days. That's 38% of a full year. Doing the math here, it appears that Congressmen only deserve $62,700 out of that $165,000.

We should ask for that money. Josh Marshall said the same thing a couple weeks back.

Pretty amazing stuff. And it seems like it's being treated with a near total media blackout. Stung by the voters' rebuke, the out-going Republican Congress has decided to close its doors without doing it's mandated job, finishing the budget bills for next year. By all rights they should send back their paychecks too [...]

We're their employers. Shouldn't there be some sort of garnishment?

Yes there should. It's time to get to the phones. Anyone with a Republican congressman needs to call them and ask them for $102,300. Now, I'll leave it up to you to decide where that money should go. Fighting homelessness? Directly into a certain taxpayer/blogger's pocket? The point is that this is a massive theft of public money, to the tune of 43.5 MILLION DOLLARS.

Anyone interested in pitching in on this little project, and making Congressional Republicans' last week in the majority even more miserable than it already is?