[s-cars] Re: Congressional retirement plans

[GreenBugeye at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/7/2003 2:20:38 PM Eastern Standard Time, s-car-list-request at audifans.com writes:

> 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.  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), with their wives drawing
> $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.  This is calculated on an
> average life span for each.  Their cost for this excellent
> plan is $00.00.

Sorry, but this just isn't true -- legislators' pensions are based on how many years they served.  Our Congressman was recently defeated after 16 years in office.  His pension is $38,000/year and I believe it includes free health care for life, as well.  Generous, yes, but nowhere near 100% pay for life.

For Sen. Byrd (West Virginia's billion dollar industry) to receive $7.8 million in pension payments would mean that he'd have to retire right now and live to be 200 years old -- and neither of those seems likely to happen.

Chris Eck
59 Bugeye