Gerry Connolly Admits He Is Not Doing His Job (And Neither is Congress)

So Gerry Connolly (D) is running against Keith Fimian (R) in Northern Virginia.  So Fimian proposes at one point that Congress get its pay cut down to $50K, but then if Congress balances the budget, they get a bonus of $250K.  Personally this strikes me as “stunty.”  You won’t get the votes for that unless congress actually supports balancing the budget.  I mean I like the principle of performance bonuses generally, but usually they are imposed by a higher authority—by your bosses, for instance; self-imposed performance bonuses seem farcical.

But then Connolly comes back with an ad saying that it was outrageous that Fimian wants Congress to get a bonus “for doing its job.”  Now Paige Cunningham suggests this is deceptive.  I don’t quite agree.  The ad in question does show enough context that we can hear Fimian’s full remarks.

But okay, so balancing the budget is doing your job, eh Gerry?  Well, then you are not doing it.  You are actively contributing to the massive spending in our federal budget, voting for stimulus payments and even earmarks for your district.  Seriously, does this look like you are doing your job?

 And let’s put that in perspective with an old but useful chart:

And let’s dig into the numbers a little here.  Connolly for instance bragged about bringing home these items in the budget...

“$64 million to the Prince William schools, saving 304 teaching positions for a year.”  That comes out to over $210K per teacher.

“$3.9 million for eight additional buses for the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission.”  That comes out to over $487K per bus.  Hey just googling on the web, I found a pretty nice looking bus for about $32K.

“A $767,000 grant for Manassas to hire four additional police officers.”  That works out to over $191K per officer.  So apparently they are cheaper than teachers.  /sarcasm

“$790,000 for homelessness prevention.”  Hey, you know what helps prevent homelessness, too?  Tax cuts.  I have a similar criticism about his other item “$7 million in small business grants to Prince William companies.”  And that is only the low-hanging fruit.  I bet there is more waste there than that.

But the lamest thing is that Gerry Connolly doesn’t even seem to understand how to do his job.  This is an exchange with Ben Bernanke:

CONNOLLY: I’m telling you, they don’t have an open mind. They have publicly expressed that they do not favor — you know, they’re all for deficit reduction as long as anything having to do with revenue [i.e. taxes] is off the table. Can we get to serious deficit reduction — change that trajectory you talked about — if we eliminate half of the ledger sheet?

BERNANKE: Well, theoretically you could if you cut enough, but it would be very difficult to do that.

CONNOLLY: Is there enough spending to be cut?

Um, you don’t know?  I mean you are on the House Budget Committee and you don’t know that there is enough spending to be cut?  Oy vey!

I mean that is the line of bullshit they sell you when they argue that it is fiscally conservative to raise taxes.  They say, “how are you ever going to reduce the deficit, without raising taxes?”  Now conservatives like to then mention things like the laffer curve and while that point has validity, they are making the mistake of playing their game.

I mean let’s try a little thought experiment.  Let’s imagine that we do not have a deficit, but there is only $500 billion in waste in our budget.  I know, fantasy land, but let’s play pretend and keep the numbers simple.  So you could have a $250 billion tax cut, and then still cut $250 billion from the budget.  In other words, if you have enough waste, you can cut taxes and cut spending.  Not to mention that the laffer curve does show that if you cut taxes, you can increase tax revenues (because it turns out that business persons know better how to invest their money than the government—go figure!).  So to pretend we have to choose between cutting taxing and cutting spending, is just bullshit.

So bottom line, by your own terms, Gerry, you have confessed you are not doing your job.  You are saying congress is not doing its job.  And you are saying that you don’t even know how to do your job.  So why exactly should you keep your job?