In my 39-year business career, I have never seen a company pay any employee their salary while allowing that employee to spend the greater part of a year searching for a better job.
However, that is exactly what happened during the last presidential campaign. All of the senators who were candidates for president stopped going to their day job in the United States Senate. They all traveled the country campaigning.
Further, when the field narrowed down to Senators McCain, Obama and Clinton, these candidates rarely showed up.
According to Dick Morris and Eileen McGann in their book, “Fleeced,” each of these senators were present for roll-call votes on only five days in the first three months of 2008. Nevertheless, each drew their $165,200 salary while pursuing the White House.
As an aside, the current salary for the rank-and-file members of the Senate and House is $174,000. It is $193,400 for the majority and minority party leaders in the House and Senate and $223,500 for the Speaker of the House.
Now, one may say their absences didn’t negatively impact the country. However, consider that the Senate defeated a bill that would have increased the gain exclusion on the sale of one’s personal residence for inflation. IRS 121 allows individual taxpayers to exclude from gross income up to $250,000 of the gain on the sale of the personal residence.
To qualify, the taxpayer must have owned and used the residence as the principal residence for at least two years during the five-year period ending on the date of the sale. The exclusion limit is increased to $500,000 for married couples filing a joint return if either spouse satisfies the minumum two-year ownership requirement and both spouses meet the two-year use requirement.
The bill was defeated by a narrow margin of 44 to 41. Given that the bulk of the average citizen’s nest egg is the equity in one’s home, this issue has significant implications, especially for retirees, considering the unsound footing of social security. So, the votes of these three missing senators might have made a difference!
The apathy of the U.S. citizenry regarding such occurrences perplexes me. This is another reason to demand term limits, and finally put an end to career politicians. Further, with the 2012 election on the horizon, we should demand legislation which requires any sitting politician to resign his or her current position if he or she wishes to campaign for another position.
Remember, as Abraham Lincoln stated in his Gettysburg Address, “…Government of the people, by the people, for the people…” What we have is government of the politicians, by the politicians and for the politicians.
Patrick Lynch is a visiting assistant professor of accounting.
He can be reached at
