Who pays all these staffers?
The taxpayer does.
Personal Staff Allowances
enable members to hire aides for clerical, administrative,
legislative and media support.
- Representatives' staff
allowances can be used to hire up to 18 permanent and four
non-permanent aides divided between the members' Washington and
district offices. Up to $75,000 of a representative's staff
funds can be transferred to his or her official expense account
for use in other categories, such as computer and related
services. The maximum salary allowed
House personal staffers in 2005 was $156,848 (2001: $140,451).
- Senators' personal staff
allowances vary with the size of the members' states. Senators
may hire as many aides as they wish within their allowance;
typically this ranges between 26 and 60, depending on the size
of the state and the salary levels offered to the staffers.
- The maximum salary allowed
to Senate personal staffers in 2003 was $150,159 (1999: $132,159);
for Senate legislative staffers the maximum salary in 2005 was
$153,599.
In addition to their personal
staffs, senators and representatives are assisted on legislative
matters by staffs of the committees and subcommittees on which
they serve.
From TheCapitol.Net
BTW, the link in the previous post I gave does have the government work history of each staffer. The higher paid ones were not just hired off the street, most were staffers on committees or with other Congressmen prior to their current employment. It might not be the resume people are demanding, but it is something.
I don't know how Obama runs his office, but he is like the CEO of any enterprise. The Senate office is a multi-million dollar enterprise, his campaign is more like a multi-hundreds of millions of dollars enterprise. He believes in a bunch of stuff on paper, does he follows through in any real way is a valid question. Fair pay, affirmative action, set aside contracts for minority owned business...some of the people on Obama's staff are paid less than a WalMart associate. WAKEUP OBAMA
-dale
