Posted on 02/20/2014 8:15:52 AM PST by jimbo123
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas likes to present himself as a deficit hawk—a red-state conservative who “believes that Congress must be a good steward of the taxpayers’ money,” as his official website declares, and that “fiscal responsibility is the cornerstone for good governance.”
So the revelation in the National Journal that the 61-year-old Cornyn is collecting three different state-government pensions while receiving his federal salary as a senator (a total of $239,383 in taxpayer-funded largesse) is slightly off-message, and just a tad inconvenient, as he gets ready to run for a third term next year.
“There’s a lot of hypocrisy there,” says Tea Party pundit Erick Erickson, proprietor of the influential RedState.com blog. “I think John Cornyn is a good guy. He didn’t create the pensions model, and there’s nothing wrong with getting multiple pensions. But this is the next front for conservatives: they need to pick a fight with government pensions. And it becomes very hard for people like John Cornyn to pick that fight when he’s benefiting so well from them.”
-snip-
But Erickson says an elite culture of entitlement has long infected politicians of both parties—so it’s undoubtedly unfair to single out Cornyn and McDonnell for special opprobrium; McDonnell, for one, isn’t running for reelection. However, Cornyn (whose spokeswoman didn’t return a call seeking comment) has already drawn a primary opponent, a Tea Partier and Iraq War veteran who might make effective use of the pension imbroglio.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
What a pig, eating at the trough of government all these years. He is one of too many life-long leeches doing the same thing, but at least the Democrats don’t bleat about being “deficit hawks” while firmly attached to the shrunken teat of the nanny state.
Void the bowels of Washington, D. C. 2014 - 2016
There should be NO PENSIONS or any other post office benefits for elected officials. NONE.
This alone would serve very effectively as a de facto term limiter.
The closing line is really worth noting “[A] senior staffer for a conservative Washington think tank scolded: “Aren’t there more important stories out there?” The staffer added: “I personally like John Cornyn. Nobody here is going to talk to you. Everybody double-dips in Washington.”
Don’t know which think tank this is, but it shows what we are up against if this is view of somebody on “our side”.
He’s not the only multiple pension recipient in Congress, not that I’m letting him off the hook. Congress is often the ultimate goal of novice pols who start at the school board level and work up, collecting pensions along the way. it’s the one road in the US that is paved with gold.
I don’t disagree that these political retirement setups are disgraceful. But the solution would be to change the rules, not to fix on one politician and accuse him of triple dipping.
They ALL do that, and will continue to do so until the system is changed.
But it’s still penny-ante compared to the trillions being thrown down the rathole elsewhere, with the complicity of buys like Cornyn.
What you say is true. The only point I was trying to make is the Vet thing is more “politically expedient” for our team than the National Debt.
I doubt that John Cornyn is the only one in Congress collecting pensions plus his salary…
why not check EACH AND EVERY PERSON IN CONGRESS..
the people who run this country are all crooks, cheats and liars..so nothing new there..
Or perhaps elected officials could choose ONE of the pensions to collect and they’d have to forego any rights to collect the others. If the pension fund dries up or is changed in any way, they can’t change their mind and switch to a different pension.
Granted, I’m not specifically opposed to your “no pensions” idea, I’m just offering an alternative to avoid multi-dipping.
Cornyn filed false ethics disclosure reports that didn’t report the pensions.
Yes, maybe they could be restricted to the highest paying one or something. And quite frankly I don’t think anyone should be able to start drawing a pension until they are at least 60 or 55 at the very youngest. People just live too long nowadays, you shouldn’t work for 20 years and draw a pension for 40!
I’m not saying there couldn’t be something done for them, perhaps a 401(k) with some MINIMAL contributions made for them (in addition to their own money going in). And I’m not 100% opposed to providing some protection (for a brief time) for ex-presidents and their families.
A lot of people are still calling for term limits. And not just here, I see that everywhere.
These folks must not remember that term limits were voted in, maybe as part of the Contract with America but I’m not sure, but were ruled unconstitutional. Maybe this would be worth amending the constitution over, maybe not, but I think we can find other less cumbersome ways to make 40 year careers in congress less common.
Of course, we’d still be asking these folks to run against their own selfish interests, but we might be able to shame them into it.
Cornball has only been in office just over elven years; he’s a newcomer compared to many others. Same time as SC’s Loveable Lindsey
So who put them there?
In his first public comments since updating his disclosure forms, Cornyn said in a conference call with reporters last week that the delayed disclosures were an “oversight.”
He declined to elaborate and when asked to respond to criticism about “double-dipping,” the San Antonio Republican quipped, “I don’t think my microphone’s working, I said that’s all I have for you on that.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.