“On the Holmes Front,” with Frank Holmes
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has only been in office six months, but she’s made history: She’s the first congresswoman to openly blackmail the American people.
Before Ocasio-Cortez went to Washington, politicians took bribes, but they did it in the dark of night—then they deleted the records and zapped the hard drives with BleachBit before smashing them with hammers.
But this week, Ocasio-Cortez fired off a tweet that blackmailed the whole country: They’d better give her a raise, or Congress might just start taking bribes.
Congress cooked up a plan to give itself a $4,500 raise—because a $174,000 a year salary, plus benefits, is just not enough for them.
Leaders of both parties were down with the plan – reportedly including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise – and it looked like a done deal.
But grassroots conservatives fought against the “cost of living” pay hike, saying the socialist-leaning Democrats want middle-class taxpayers to give them a raise “as a reward for their incompetence.”
So, the Bronx socialist went on Twitter and made US taxpayers an offer they couldn’t refuse.
“Yep,” she wrote, “voting against cost of living increases for members of Congress may sound nice, but doing so only increases pressure on them to keep dark money loopholes open. This makes campaign finance reform harder.”
Yep. Voting against cost of living increases for members of Congress may sound nice, but doing so only increases pressure on them to keep dark money loopholes open.
This makes campaign finance reform *harder.*
ALL workers deserve cost of living increases, incl min wage workers. https://t.co/fCdgHKx4G1
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 11, 2019
Imagine if Donald Trump had said anything like that—the Deep State would sic a special prosecutor on him in a heartbeat!
Conservatives immediately shot back at Ocasio-Cortez’ blackmail.
Joy Pullman, executive editor of the conservative Federalist website, wrote: “’Guys, I need to earn $174k/year or I just might have to steal’ may be the most socialist thing ever said. ”
"Guys, I need to earn $174k/year or I just might have to steal" may be the most socialist thing ever said. https://t.co/NH6S3AZLt4
— Joy Pullmann (@JoyPullmann) June 11, 2019
Carol Roth of TV’s “Future File” wrote: “The most millennial thing ever: ‘Hey, so, I’ve been here for less than six months, drove off Amazon from my district, including billions of dollars of economic activity and six-figure jobs – can I have a raise? I think I need a raise.'”
The most millennial thing ever: "Hey, so, I've been here for less than six months, drove off Amazon from my district, including billions of dollars of economic activity and six-figure jobs– can I have a raise? I think I need a raise."
— Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) June 11, 2019
A pay raise is the last thing Congress needs—or deserves.
Politicians aren’t exactly hurting for money. Since 2012, the average congressman has been worth a million dollars.
And $174,000 is almost three-times the average American salary.
But remember, Congress gets that for working about six months of the year. The rest of the time, Congress is in recess or representatives work at home.
Even that doesn’t begin to touch congressmen’s rich bag of perks, benefits, and extras.
Members of Congress fly for free to and from their home districts or on work assignments. Politicians are cagy about scheduling “official business” trips at the same time and place as big-dollar fundraisers…and taxpayers foot the bill.
While they’re out, they have an expense account of $1 million for members of the House, or about $3.5 million for senators. But they don’t have to use much of it at the airport; they park for free there, too.
Congressmen have gold-plated health insurance, mostly paid by the taxpayer—and when they retire, they’re eligible for health care coverage for their rest of their lives.
They have an on-site gym and cafeteria that serves low-cost, gourmet meals…and they get to use both facilities even after they’re voted out of office.
Even after they’re gone, politicians keep costing taxpayers big bucks!
Congressmen can draw a pension for life, even if they only served five years—and they can retire with up to 80% of their salary.
When they retire, they collect Social Security and a private, 401(k)-style account that charges some of the lowest fees in the industry—giving them thousands more dollars in retirement savings than their average hard-working constituent.
And when they die, their surviving spouse gets the congressman’s full salary for at least a year.
Congressmen are expensive even after they’re dead!
But it’s when they’re living that they’re truly dangerous—because they put themselves above the law.
Congress lets itself off the hook from insider trading laws. Maybe that’s why, no matter how middle class Americans are doing, congressmen’s net worth has gone up every single year except 2008, the height of the global recession.
They can ignore the laws other people have to obey, like not smoking in their offices.
And congressmen could sexually harass staffers, then force taxpayers to pay millions of dollars in hush money—until President Donald Trump put a stop to this last December.
Laws? Those are for little people!
Now, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is trying to shake down taxpayers for another couple thousand bucks, or she’ll start selling her vote to the highest bidder.
Quick, vote her out of office before she can start collecting a pension.
Frank Holmes is a reporter for The Horn News. He is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”