A friend forwarded this to me in an email. There was no source given, so I don't know if these are the actual congressional retirement plans, but if they are, that's very interesting. Why should elected officials have a better retirement benefits than ordinary Americans. This is just another aspect of the career politician thing that needs to be looked into.
SOCIAL SECURITY:
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.
Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of
course, they do not collect from it.
You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their
rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for
themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their
own benefit plan .
In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it.
After all, it is a great plan.
For all practical purposes their plan works like this:
When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.
Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments..
This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two
Dignitaries.. For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their
wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred
Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last
years of their lives..
Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more
during the rest of their lives.
Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA....ZILCH....
This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick
up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come
directly from the General Funds;
"OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"!
>From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid)
into,-every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our
employer)-we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after
retirement.
Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly
benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator! Bill Bradley's
benefits!
Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.
That change would be to:
Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and
Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us
then sit back.....
and watch how fast they would fix it.