One by one, our leaders, those whom we have every right to believe we can look up to, are violating the public trust. A long list are being found guilty on charges such as bribery, conspiracy, lying to authorities and more. They serve out their time in decidedly white collar jails and then they merrilly receive their congressional pensions. I take great exception to allowing these guys to receive a pension.

Last case in point, Congressman Bob Ney, who will receive a $29,000 annual pension based on his 12 years of service. He also is eligible to receive social security. And draw down funds in hi 401K which was matched by the US government. Not bad for someone who has pleaded guilty and is looking at a minimum of 27 months in prison.

Periodically, usually after the most recent set of scandals, Congress makes a half-hearted attempted to change the rules, but has never succeeded. The last attempt was in May when the House passed a bill that included a provision barring lawmakers convicted of certain crimes from collecting pensions. Ney would have been covered by this prohibition as conspiracy, was one of those crimes covered by the legislation. However, the House and Senate failed to reach agreement on this issue in the compromise bill and another chance to put some real teeth into an ethics bill was lost again.

As reported by Paul Krawzak of the Copley News Service:

Norman Ornstein, a congressional analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, said it’s hard for a pension change to pass unless it’s part of a larger ethics proposal.

“Frankly, the will to enact a larger ethics package that causes disruption in their (lawmakers’) daily lives is something that has not gotten the level of intense support that it should,” he said. “It’s not going to do so until you get the public demanding it.”

Are we, the public, going to allow these criminals to continue to bear little consequence for their complete betrayal of the public trust? Let's cause a stink - criminal lawmakers lose their pensions - new rule.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive