The career politician wants to go back to mooching off of taxpayers after 28 years and $3 million
What’s the only thing worse for Wisconsinites than Senator Russ Feingold’s addiction to holding political office?
Having to pay for it.
The Capital Times reports that Senator Feingold collected $3 million from a lifetime of living on the taxpayers’ dime:
…Johnson’s campaign fired back at Feingold, arguing that the former senator has earned $3 million in taxpayer money during his 34 years in state and federal office. It’s part of a ramped-up level of focus from the Johnson campaign on the length of Feingold’s political career. The number comes from salary data from 1983 through 2010 and also includes a pension of about $50,000…Feingold served in the state Senate from 1983 to 1993. According to state records, he started off making about $23,000 a year. When he left state office, his salary was about $31,000 a year. In his first year in the U.S. Senate, Feingold earned a salary of about $134,000. When he left the Senate — ousted by Johnson in 2010 — he earned about $162,000 a year.
During his eighteen years in Washington, Senator Feingold had no problem raiding the paychecks of hardworking Wisconsinites with his support for more than 270 tax increases.
Yet, when it came to his own taxpayer-funded salary, Senator Feingold wouldn’t budge.
Back in 1994, Senator Feingold opposed an amendment to cut his own pay by 15%.
FEINGOLD FLASHBACK:
In May 1994, Feingold Voted Against An Amendment That Would Have Reduced The Pay For Members Of Congress By 15%. “Burns, R-Mont., amendment to reduce immediately the pay of members of Congress by 15 percent.” (S. 1935, CQ Vote #103: Rejected 34-59: R 28-11; D 6-48, 5/5/94, Feingold Voted Nay)
- In 1994, Senators Were Paid $133,600, So A 15% Pay Cut Would Have Made Their Salaries $113,560. “Members did not receive the scheduled January 1, 1994, 2.1% adjustment as a consequence of votes taken in 1993 to prohibit the annual adjustment. The salary of Members remained $133,600.” (Ida A. Brudnick, “Salaries of Members of Congress: Recent Actions and Historical Tables,” Congressional Research Service, 6/8/15)
Senator Feingold – the career politician who spent 64 percent of his adult life in office, wants taxpayers to again bankroll his ego.
It’s time to cut him off, once and for all.