The Washington Times reports:
A month after they voted to punish some corporate executives for taking hefty bonus payouts, members of the House of Representatives quietly gave their own staffers a new potential bonus by making even their top-earning aides eligible for taxpayer dollars to repay their student loans.
The change, which took effect in May, means House employees earning up to $168,411, or the top level, are now eligible for government-funded subsidies to help pay down their student loans.
House officials defend the change as a job-related benefit necessary to keep the government competitive in the hiring market – the same argument corporate chieftains used to defend their own pay scales.
(Via Hot Air.)
Congressional Democrats were so exercised about AIG’s retention bonuses, they were prepared to pass an unconstitutional bill of attainder. Now they’re issuing them themselves.
But don’t call them hypocrites, this is totally different. AIG was a failed enterprise that dismally failed to anticipate the financial crisis and was kept afloat by the taxpayer. Congress on the other hand, uh, never mind.
