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People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

Republican Congressman Sean Duffy crying about making ends meet on $174,000 salary

Posted on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 06:09 PM
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Rising Republican star Sean Duffy, the Wisconsin Irish American congressman, has been brought back down to earth by a video showing him complaining about his $174,000 a year salary, three times the median income in his state.

TPM reports that the Republican Party in the state has made strenuous efforts to take down the video and remove it from the internet after they realized the damage it would cause.

The video above is from the same event but does not include the controversial comments. You can go to TPM.com to find it

Duffy was talking about his salary at a Republican town meeting. In the clip, Duffy is asked whether he'd support cutting his own salary.

Duffy says he would, but only as part of a plan where all public employees' salaries would be cut. He then stated that the $174,000 in salary he makes is tough for his family to live on. In the TPM clip he is complaining about making ends meet on his salary, plus lucrative expenses.

The former reality show star should have known better. The reality is that Wisconsin union members making just $45,000 a year just had their salaries cut by the governor. And Duffy feels hard done by?

Another example of Republican hypocrisy.


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28 comments

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moygannon | Mar 31, 2011, 03:04 PM EDT
Cannot see the argument about Mr. Duffy's salary being constructive. One must be paid a decent salary in accordance with responsibility otherwise corruption will prevail.

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eiriamach | Mar 31, 2011, 02:59 PM EDT
According to the Bureau for Labor Statistics, in 2010, public-sector workers represented by unions had median weekly salaries of $956, with the lowest wages going to state workers ($917) and the highest to federal workers ($987). Non-unionized public-sector workers averaged $801, with the lowest salaries going to local government employees ($743) and state government workers averaging $769. There is a big difference between $956 and $743, and we should expect that GOP governors are looking to close that gap--by reducing unionized workers' salaries to the level of the lowest non-unionized workers'. But hey, they'll call that "Progress" when they succeed! I don't know where chesapeake got his or her statistics--maybe from an over-active imagination?

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teddyboy | Mar 31, 2011, 01:42 PM EDT
very sad ,, seems like he wants the same pay that the Irish goverment gives out to the Irish pols, anyway he should try and live on 750 dollars per month on US social security,,

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michaelidaho | Mar 31, 2011, 01:35 PM EDT
Patrick, Good story and you are right on target for the most part. However, for every union member making $45,000 a year there are probably 3 or 4 others making way more than that. If you are a rookie police officer in Massachusetts you can easily make over $100,000 doing traffic details and just about any construction union worker will make way over $45,000 after taking their yearly winter holiday for about 4-6 months. Please ... no more sob stories about union workers with their inflated wages, pensions, medical benefits and archaic regulations that make it almost impossible to fire the lazy, ineffective ones among them (i.e. teacher unions)

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chesapeake | Mar 31, 2011, 01:26 PM EDT
The average salaries and benefits for government union members is in excess of $84,000 per year. The top four union goons make well into six figures. If I had to survive in D.C. pn $ 174,000/year it would be tight. He obviously needs to consult with his liberal counterparts on how to augment his salary.

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curranart | Mar 31, 2011, 12:13 PM EDT
Whens he gonna buy a painting,lol

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SirRobertMcCall | Mar 31, 2011, 11:43 AM EDT
Let him live on 12k's a year and see if he can make ends meet. SSI.

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ciarrai | Mar 31, 2011, 11:24 AM EDT
Oops.

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JohnE67 | Mar 31, 2011, 10:47 AM EDT
Cry me a river Sean...

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francisquinn | Mar 31, 2011, 09:51 AM EDT
It shows how little liberals know....Hey stupid...he has to maintain two residences....both in expensive areas....why don;t you try it...

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colkelley | Mar 31, 2011, 09:27 AM EDT
This hypocrisy is not limited to the Republicans. Elected officials of all parties need to be paid on an hourly basis with bonuses for being present to vote, for not voting "Present" when they do vote. On that basis Obama would have been paying to be in office as a Senator, not being paid.

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CitizenWhy | Mar 31, 2011, 09:25 AM EDT
Well, the answer Republicans like is to eliminate union collective bargaining rights, continue to lower the income of the average American, create widespread fear about job security and Social Security and give upper income people more money. ... HOWEVER, I DO AGRRE WITH HIM that, while #174,000 a year is upper income, it is not by any means extravagant for someone who must maintain 2 homes (especially if one is in DC) and must travel a lot. I believe that Congress reps should be given free travel for 4-6 visits to their home districts, and some kind of subsidy for DC housing. They must feel financially secure, especially if we want people from not rich backgrounds to serve in Congress.

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mamaginnty | Mar 30, 2011, 06:38 PM EDT
Patrick likes to twist his story a little bit, Duffy said he would cut IF the rest follow as well, what do you expect, that he cut his own wage, and the rest do not...Jasus. Sinn Fein here in Ireland will not take the money that the rest of government are taking 150k-250k and thats not counting thier lucrative expenses. S.F. are only excepting the industrial wage of 35k and NO expenses. Cathal give S.F. some publicity on that one. Seems most irish papers are government run. As in America,

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