I received this via email. I don't know the source.

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions
during election years.
Our Senators and Congress men & women
do not pay into Social Security and,
of course, they do not collect from it.
You see, Social Security benefits
were not suitable for persons
of their rare elevation
in society.
They felt they should have a special plan
for themselves.
So, many years ago they voted in
their own benefit plan.

In more recent years,
no congressperson has felt the need
to change it. After all, it is a great plan.

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, former Senator Byrd
and Congressman White
and their wives
mayexpect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred
Thousand Dollars),
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.
Nada. Zilch.
This little perk they voted for
themselves is free to them.
You and I pick up the tab for this plan.
The funds for this fine retirement plan
come directlyfrom the General Funds-
our tax dollars at work!

From our own Social Security Plan,
which you and I pay (or have paid)
into-every payday until we retire
(which amount is matched by
our employer)
--we can expect to get an average
$1,000 per month after retirement.
Or, in other words,
we would have to collect
our average of $1,000.
monthly benefits for 68 years
and one (1) month
to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits!

Social Security could be very good
if only one small change were made.

That change would be to jerk
the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan
from under the
Senators and Congressmen.
Put them into the Social Security plan
withthe rest of us ...
hen sit back and watch
how fast they would fix it.

If enough people receive this,
maybe a seed of awareness will be
planted and maybe good changes
will evolve.

If you can't beat them, join them. Run for Congress! We have the same thing here, almost. Canadian members of parliament qualify for full pension after 8 years in the house (so they have to be re-elected at least once. They get about 80% of their pay in the form of pension I believe, but if they continue to get re-elected they are even better off, since they are on full pay and don't do anything to begin with.

__________________
Jason Priest
1999 E430
1995 E420 - retired
1986 420SEL - retired

In Canada, our politicians have a real humdinger of a gold-plated pension plan. After just six years of service, they get full pension. Six years?

We had a party that made much of their members not accepting the plan, but after getting into office, they couldn't sign on fast enough. Funny...

__________________
John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

http://img31.exs.cx/img31/4050/tophat6.gif

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but that's not entirely correct. Members of Congress do get a generous pension benefit, but it's the same benefit that federal employees get. Also, members elected after 1984 are required to pay into Social Security, just like the rest of us (members elected before 1984 did not pay into SSI and did not qualify for SSI benefits, as with all federal employees at the time).

Also, pension benefits are capped at 80% of the average highest salary for 3 years. Under the most generous option, 32 years of service (while contributing 8.2% of payroll) are required, to receive a benefit of $145,100 (base pay) x .80 = $116,080.

A pretty good deal, but it would take Senator Byrd 67 years to rack up the aforementioned $7.8 million.

Incidentally, the average pension paid out under this plan was $57,430 in 1999. The average pension under the less generous option averaged out to $39,400.

For more information, see this link.

-anthony