Earlier today Jeff noted how Republican Rep. Sean Duffy told a constituent at a recent town hall meeting that’s he’s “struggling” to make ends meet on his $174,000 Congressional salary, and while Jeff posted a transcript of the exchange between Rep. Duffy and his constituent, I’ve got some video of the exchange.
Watch as Rep. Duffy complains about how hard it is to make ends meet on a six-figure salary:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/gopers-demand-sean-duffy-salary-tape-be-pulled-from-the-internet.php
A day after TPM posted the video we obtained of Duffy talking about his salary at a Polk County town hall meeting earlier this year, the Polk County GOP contacted the video provider we used to host the video, Blip.tv, and demanded the video be taken down.
This was my reaction when I heard about his problems.
Then this was my reaction when I read what you linked.
All right now that is over I actually can see where he’s coming from: He’s saying he’s not rich, which he’s not, not when compared to the top 1% of earners. His lifestyle, by post-war standards, is solidly middle class/upper middle class. It’s really sort of a fifties American dream – big happy family, stay at home mom, nice little house in the suburbs.
However it leads to this: If it now takes 174k, plus benefits, to obtain the American Dream and he is struggling – then what the hell is the other 98% of the country supposed to do?
In fairness – and I hesitate to say this since I’m in no way justifying his idiotic comment – it’s not like he got a check for $174,000 the day he was sworn in.
He already used to getting pretty impressive paychecks though to begin with, ever since his reality TV show. I got to check it again, but it was definitely not peanuts.
I understand that he just got sworn in, but he is used to having more money than this in the past. I realize colleges can be expensive mind you, but I think he has a lavish lifestyle to begin with. Get rid of the second house, maybe that’s why you’re having a hard time?
Furthermore, you also got to think of the place where he is from. His hometown’s (Hayward) median income for a household in the city was $28,421, and the median income for a family was $36,287. His current town’s (Ashland) median income for a household in the city was $30,853, and the median income for a family was $40,549.
Just a really stupid thing to say overall, especially since the attitudes up there are very populist – that’s the reason why Obey held his position up there for so long. What I’m trying to say is $74,000 is more than enough to live on if you’re responsible and practice austerity, so he really has no excuse to get into problems with money if he has been paid more in the past.
I dunno – my guess is he probably didn’t get paid much for the TV stuff. Wasn’t that one of the first seasons of Real World? I’m betting the contract was very favorable to MTV & the producers – that they had kids jumping at the opportunity to sign away their rights to get to move into a cool place & be on TV.
No idea what kind of money being a competitive lumberjack or whatever he was generates.
That said, I’m sure being a DA paid fairly well – especially, as you say, relative to the majority of his constituents.
But it’s all really idle chatter & not terribly relevant. Bottom line, it was a tone deaf statement to make. Freshmen legislators sometimes make those sort of gaffes – but given his past as both a DA and a “celebrity” you’d think he would’ve know better.
“– it’s not like he got a check for $174,000 the day he was sworn in”
No and he isn’t being asked to pay a the whole year’s mortgage, buy a year’s worth of groceries, or a year’s worth of gasoline the day after. And I understand he is one of the newbies who are living in their offices in DC…so no rent to pay there either.
Yeah, and my complaint with what he said is that if he’s really having trouble making ends meet on a salary that’s nearly double what he made as a District Attorney, then how the heck was he making ends meet before?
Well, yes, lets all sit around and feel sorry for Duffy making $174,000 while he and his coworkers villainize public workers making $28,000-$74,000 (median income of $51,000) as living “high off the hog” and “sucking off the taxpayer teat”.