Good Money Bad Politics

The 110th Congress of the United States has been seated since Jan 3rd, 2007, our esteemed congress members are paid $169,300 a year for their efforts and labors. Now we all understand that there is a presidential race going on, but here are some interesting statistics.

John McCain has missed 57.6% of the votes and is currently the #1 senator not there.

Barack Obama has missed 39.3% of the votes putting him at #3

Hillary Clinton has missed 29% of the votes putting her at #6

Tim Johnson has missed 57.1% of the votes, but then again he has a good excuse, having had a brain hemorrhage, he has since returned to work. One must also wonder why #4 Joe Biden (32.8%) and #5 Chris Dodd (31.2%) who have dropped out of the race are beating out Hillary Clinton on missed votes, when she's still in it. Sam Brownback #7 who also dropped out of the race is close behind her at 25% but we'll look to see his numbers improve. That leaves only Daniel Inouye (10.6%) at number 8 who's not there more than 90% of the time.

One could argue that all the free time off to run is an undocumented campaign contribution funded by the American taxpayer. Since the seating of the 110th congress the salaries paid thus far (through April) should be about $225,000 thus the missed votes (not based on hours worked) work out as being worth what follows:

John McCain $129,600

Barack Obama $88,425

Hillary Clinton $65,250

I understand that the Senators are theoretically working all the time, and that when missing a vote could be working on something at least just as important, but these folks are paid to vote...to guide the country in the direction it should be going, representing not only the interests of their constituents and their states, but all of us. One wonders what took place the 10% of the time Daniel Inouye wasn't there.

Looking at the senators, specifically from the perspective of the current election, got me wondering what else was going on. I found the following statistics on our congress, which got me wondering even more.

Barbara Cubin (R-WY) has missed 50.3% of the votes in congress, and she's not running, not even for reelection.

Duncan Hunter (R-CA) has missed 29% of the votes

Ray La Hood (R-IL) has missed 18.7% of the votes, and he's not running again either.

Don Young (R-AK) has missed 17.5% of the votes.

Eddie Johnson (D-TX) has missed 17.1% of the votes.

Deborah Pryce (R-OH) has missed 16.5% of the votes, and has announced her retirement. (Sounds kinda like she already started it)

In defense of the current candidates, a look at the 109th Congress gives a slightly better picture:

John McCain missed only 9% of the votes

Hillary Clinton missed only 2.5% of the votes

Barack Obama missed only 1.7% of the votes.

But one wonders where Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) at 22.2%, and Daniel Inouye (D-HI) at 11% were. Jon Corzine (D-NJ) missed 37.2% of the vote, but he was running for governor of NJ.

Wouldn't we all like to take 2 or 3 days off a week to look for other employment while remaining on salary at our current job, no questions asked.

Really... we need to establish at least some minimum standard for our representatives to vote... say 5% barring extraordinary circumstances? I am not so naive to think that our elected representatives need to make all the votes, but there does need to be some rational level of participation. Perhaps in the near future we can take a look at what votes were missed and by whom.

Good sources of data for voting records are:

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/senate/vote-missers/

For information on what votes were missed and how each candidate voted on each issue you can go to:

Hillary Clinton: http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=55463

Barack Obama: http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=9490

John McCain: http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=53270

So you can find out how they all voted on the HR 2082 The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008.

Obama: NV (Not Voting, Excused, Absent, or Present)
Clinton: NV
McCain: N

~Finntann~