Congress’ lucrative break
Republican Tom Massie of Kentucky introduced articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for gross mismanagement of the war in Iran. Rather than face the wrath of the president by letting the articles come to the floor for discussion or possibly a vote to impeach, the speaker of the House adjourned Congress for seven weeks. With pay.
Read more Operator of 314 US Wendy’s locations files for bankruptcy protection
The current salary for a congressman is $174,000 a year, about $3,350 a week.
The current salary for the speaker of the House is $223,500 a year, about $4,300 a week.
If they’re getting paid during the break, current full-time House staff members, approximately 8,000 workers, make an average of $1,200 a week.
All together, this little stunt could cost the U.S. taxpayers nearly $10 million a week.
Minimum wage in Florida is currently $14 an hour. $560 for a 40-hour week. $2,500 a month. Many of those positions have little paid leave or vacation time. If they don’t work, they don’t get paid.
Without doing an unscientific poll, like asking those riding the bus down I-Drive at 6 a.m. any day of the week, I feel safe in my contention that most of our hard-working citizens would absolutely love it if their boss strolled by one day and yelled, “Everyone take seven weeks off, with pay!”
Not gonna happen. But that’s what Mike Johnson just did.
— Mary Sharpe, Lady Lake
Florida, the cruelest state
Gov. Ron DeSantis proclaims Florida “the freest state.” That’s debatable. After reading the article about the Board of Governors voting to ban undocumented students from our state universities, I would argue that Florida has become the cruelest state under DeSantis.
Last year the Legislature forced DACA college students to shift from paying in-state to costlier out-of-state tuition, a mean-spirited and severe hardship. Now, our lawmakers and education overseers do not want undocumented students in Florida to get a college education, a move that is narrow-minded and mean-spirited. How will that help them prepare for life and the job market?
Read more Winter Park comedian Carrot Top accused of sexual misconduct in court filing
It’s not just undocumented immigrants. In 2018, voters restored voting rights to most felons who served their sentences. But instead of allowing them to re-integrate into society as full citizens, DeSantis pushed a law requiring them to pay any outstanding legal obligations with no easy way to verify this, throwing them in limbo — or worse, re-arresting them for unknowingly voting illegally.
Then there are Florida’s abortion restrictions. Do you see a pattern here? All these laws are negative. They hurt people. They help no one. They lack compassion.
They make a case for Florida as the cruelest state, certainly not the freest.
— Scott Benarde, West Palm Beach
Youngsters lack practical skills
Young people today, we’d better accept, are generally in need of more guidance and instruction in basic skills than their predecessors. To be blunt, I think they say and do a lot more stupid stuff than their parents and grandparents ever did and worse, they don’t seem to care that they’re doing it. Confront them and they’re prone to make excuses and shirk responsibility.
Certainly, the world around us all has dramatically changed in the past two to three generations, but especially for a growing number of our affluent, supposedly well-educated children, I think there appears to have been a steady and noticeable decrease in the knowledge and use of basic, practical-use, life skills. Working adults, especially in management positions, see it everywhere today.
Occupations that deal with basic necessities: utilities, transportation, construction and so on — professions so often commonly and glibly called “the trades” — have long suffered an annoying, impractical decline in interest. At the same time, American arrogance and its culture’s worship of wealth have taught our kids to devalue and disrespect such practical vocations.
These few decades may well have taken the rest of us on a shaky ride while our lazy progeny tries to avoid learning the basics. They may launch us into an uncertain world of self-serving and self-served-up technological enhancements. In doing so however, it seems a “tradeoff” has been made: Things that were necessary and worked well have often been replaced by things far more intrinsically complicated and, in most cases, only questionably more useful.
— Maurice McCoy, Bokeelia
You can submit a letter to the editor by sending it by email to [email protected] or by filling out the form below. Letters are limited to less than 250 words and must be signed (no pseudonyms nor initials).You must include your email address, address with city and daytime phone number for verification. Letters are subject to editing for clarity and length.
Read more UCF sees Big 12 opener against TCU as an opportunity to earn respect
← Back