Sklllicorn Decries Legislative Pensions-

State Rep. Allen Skillicorn offers the following:

POLITICIANS SHOULDN’T COLLECT PENSIONS

Allen Skillicorn

Crystal Lake, IL – You can’t solve problems when you’re on the take.

I refused a pension and will not support or endorse candidates unwilling to pledge to do the same.

When I consider the vision our Nation’s Founders had of the “citizen legislator,” I doubt that pensions would have ever come to mind.

Considering that they pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to the cause of forming our country, the morphing of the citizen legislator into the modern day professional politician with the power, pay, perks and a pension to boot, seems inconceivable.

In a report by Congressional Research,

“Most lawmakers in the 18th and early 19th century can be characterized as ‘citizen legislators,’ holding full-time non-political employment and serving in Congress on a part-time basis for a short number of years.”

While pay and perks were almost non-existent early on, circumstances changed after the Civil War ushering in the rise of the career politician, resulting in the mess we find ourselves in today–where the political class from DC to Springfield enrich themselves on the backs of struggling taxpayers.

It is time to take a stand and return the politician to the proper place of serving the people as a citizen legislator, no pension required.


Comments

Sklllicorn Decries Legislative Pensions- — 8 Comments

  1. What will be the pension amount of Senator Dick Durbin when he retires from the U.S. Senate?

  2. Same for all State legislators, county board members and so on….interesting that the only significant elected officials without any compensation are school board members who have more responsibility than any of the others.

  3. Our sunshine blogger stands high as an honorable exception to this problem. Stay tuned…tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock…

  4. No worries. The Public Sector can still have what they actually contributed, which is about the same as the cash value of a store coupon.

  5. It doesn’t pay enough so you need some incentive to want to do that HOWEVER, term limits would curtail the amount they would be able to collect. Also lawmakers should have to follow all the same laws we the people must follow.

  6. dentbla engages in what is known as the genetic fallacy, where an idea is ignored because of its origin.

    “It came from the 18th century, therefore it can’t be good.”

    Nevermind hydraulic presses, sewing machines, air compressors, pianos, (trigger warning for Cindy) smallpox vaccines, and the Bill of Rights…

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