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["Melody O." <melody AT crecon.com>]

At 02:22 PM 1/8/05 -0700, you wrote:
>. . . where members are even now talking about our retirement benefits 
>under the involuntary Social Security system, here is how they have treated 
>themselves:
>
>Study: Congressional Retirees Reap Huge Taxpayer-Funded Pensions
>
>(Alexandria, VA) -- Thanks to a generous pension system, life after 
>Congress can be a lot more lucrative: that's the conclusion of a study 
>released today by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF), a 
>research group known for its detailed estimates on Congressional retirement 
>benefits. 
<snip>

>Members of Congress are covered under the two major retirement systems that 
>include most federal employees, but lawmakers enjoy better pension formulas 
>and eligibility rules than rank-and-file workers (participation is 
>voluntary). In addition, Congressional pensions are two to three times more 
>generous than those offered to similarly-paid executives in the private 
>sector; one reason is a yearly COLA that few businesses offer.

Another reason they do so well is they vote it for themselves.  Where else
could you simply vote yourself a raise?  Democracy at its finest......

America: where we have learned to vote ourselves bread and circuses!  Watch
out Roman Empire, here we come too!

Best wishes,
Melody