{"id":34915,"date":"2010-03-17T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T01:15:21","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T01:15:21","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T01:15:21","slug":"eib_research_on_congressional_pensions_and_insurance_benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2010\/03\/17\/eib_research_on_congressional_pensions_and_insurance_benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"EIB Research on Congressional Pensions and Insurance Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Sherry in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, great to have you on the program just outside Pittsburgh here. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah, hi, Rush. Yeah, I\u2019m right outside Pittsburgh, and I\u2019m near a district where one of the fence sitters for the health care bill, Jason Altmire, is.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, I saw him on television. He sounds like he\u2019s pretty dead-set against this thing.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, I hope so. I used to live in his district in the eighties but I live on the other side of Pittsburgh now, but I\u2019d just like to give them a little friendly reminder all these fence sitters who might be considering taking one for the team or sacrificing for Obama or whatever. If they go ahead and pass this Obamacare and they get kicked out of office, because they will be kicked out of office if they do it, they are no longer going to be exempt from what they\u2019re foisting on us. They\u2019re going to have to live under this Obamacare. They\u2019re not going to be exempted like they\u2019re doing to themselves, which is the thing that really irks me the most about this whole thing is that they exempt themselves from what they\u2019re foisting on us.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, why do you think they\u2019re not going to exempt themselves from it if it passes? They clearly have exempted themselves from it.<\/p>\n

CALLER: But I\u2019m saying: If they get kicked out of office they\u2019re going to have to go back and live with this. They\u2019re going to be back with us real people. <\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Once they get kicked off office they\u2019re going to have to live with it. <\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh.<\/p>\n

CALLER: In other words, be careful what you wish for.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, I\u2019m going to double check that. They have one of the most generous pensions and going away packages even if people lose.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I don\u2019t know how long Altmire has been serving.<\/p>\n

CALLER: But even for health care? Even if they\u2019re not working there?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Come on. Come on. These people —<\/p>\n

CALLER: (laughing) <\/p>\n

RUSH: (laughing) Are you…? Even for health care?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Let me say something, too, about this (garbled).<\/p>\n

RUSH: These people have written rules that they can take with them $13 million or whatever is left in their campaign chest that hasn\u2019t been spent.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, you\u2019re right. That\u2019s probably true. Now you\u2019re really frustrating me.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, I don\u2019t mean to frustrate you. <\/p>\n

CALLER: (laughing)<\/p>\n

RUSH: You gotta know who we\u2019re dealing with here.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I know.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019ll tell you something else. I saw Altmire. I saw him on television yesterday afternoon and he\u2019s dead set against the Slaughter Rule. I don\u2019t know where he comes down to the Senate bill, but he is one of these fence sitters. One thing I gotta tell you this about the fence sitters, these undecided guys. It\u2019s not universally true but it\u2019s very likely in some of their cases that they are already a ‘no\u2019 vote they just don\u2019t want to tell you because so they don\u2019t want the wrath so they\u2019re saying, ‘I\u2019m undecided. Give me some space. I\u2019m still thinking about it. Move on to somebody else.\u2019<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: A lot of people are using that as an excuse, but I still don\u2019t think they\u2019ve got the votes. I know they don\u2019t have the votes. If they had the votes they\u2019d be voting on it today.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay. Well, thank you, Rush.<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right. I appreciate that, Sherry. Now, I like this kind of thinking. ‘Okay, you guys, you give us this, you\u2019re subject to it when you leave Congress,\u2019 but I\u2019m not an expert on this. This is something to look up. This is something to find out. My research staff (me) is looking into this. (laughing) No, we have somebody looking into it even as we speak. Somebody\u2019s looking into it. We\u2019ll find out what they get to take with them when they lose, if anything, you know, when their pension vests or their retirement or whatever. We know that it\u2019s groovy. We know it\u2019s big. We know it\u2019s very comfortable and very rewarding.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

<\/a>RUSH: Well, all right, the initial research report is in here on congressional pensions and health care after they retire, quit, or are defeated, and as usual, anything dealing with the government is quite confusing. So I have two things here. One is from C-SPAN: ‘When are Members of Congress considered vested and eligible to receive a pension? And how much is that pension? Members who have participated in the congressional pension system are vested after 5 years of service. A full pension is available to Members 62 years of age with 5 years of service; 50 years or older with 20 years of service; or 25 years of service at any age. A reduced pension is available depending upon which of several different age\/service options is chosen.<\/p>\n

‘The average annuity for retired Members, as of 1998, was either $50,616 or $46,908.\u2019 It depends on how they retired or were defeated. ‘However, these averages don\u2019t take into account any additional funds these Members may have also accrued through investments in the Thrift Savings Plan.\u2019 So essentially members of Congress receive retirement and health benefits under the same plans that are available to other federal employees, they become vested after five years of full service. If this guy Altmire has been in Congress five years and gets defeated, he\u2019s vested, he gets his pension, the amount of his pension depending on what age he is when he gets out of there, and he gets his health benefits. So does Rostenkowski. They all do. Folks, there\u2019s no way that any ex-member of Congress is not getting health care to this day, and won\u2019t. My God, the way they take care of themselves in other ways, you think they would forget to bequeath themselves health care after they leave office?<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: By the way, members of Congress keep their health care \u2019til they die when they lose their job.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: We had a caller who had a message for her congressman, Jason Altmire, Pennsylvania, who is undecided. He\u2019s a Democrat. And she wanted to send a message to him: ‘Congressman, if you run for reelection and lose, you lose your job and you lose health care.\u2019 Now, why did she think that? Because it happens to all the rest of us — except union people, and except to federal employees. <\/p>\n

But if you lose your job, that\u2019s a big deal. That\u2019s why everybody talks about ‘portability.\u2019 That\u2019s why people talk about COBRA. If you lose your job, you lose your health care! Well, right here from the USgovinfo.about.com, the Federal Employee Health Benefits program: ‘Q: Can I continue my Federal Employees Health Benefit program into retirement? A: When you retire, you are eligible to continue health benefits coverage if you meet all the following requirements.\u2019 You know, you gotta have five years service to be vested and so forth. ‘Q: Will my FEHB [Federal Employee Health Benefits] and premiums change when I retire?\u2019 Answer: ‘No. You will be entitled to the same benefits and annual premiums as federal employees enrolled in the same plan.\u2019 So they don\u2019t lose it. Anybody with a brain would know that they would give themselves universal health care for the rest of their lives after they\u2019ve served five years in Congress. This is true not just of members of Congress. This is true of federal employees. If these people quit, if they get fired, if they retire, they keep it, but not you in your job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Sherry in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, great to have you on the program just outside Pittsburgh here. Hello. CALLER: Yeah, hi, Rush. Yeah, I\u2019m right outside Pittsburgh, and I\u2019m near a district where one of the fence sitters for the health care bill, Jason Altmire, is. RUSH: Yeah, I saw him on television. 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