This Congressional "Perk" Has to Be Too Ridiculous to Be True

Recently in a local paper there was a small "blurb" about former Ohio Congressman James Traficant having difficulty generating interest for artwork he has created behind bars while serving his sentence for taking bribes and kickbacks while in office.

That alone is not that surprising or newsworthy to me quite frankly, as I believe Traficant to be, well, old news, but another part of the piece did catch my attention and it is almost to hard to believe, so I would like to see what you think after finding out more about Traficant and other convicted elected officials and a "perk" they continue to receive at taxpayers expense despite their convictions, and ouster from their elected office.

It seems as though Traficant and other convicted officials continue to receive their annual Congressional pensions even though the either are or did sit behind bars for crimes above and beyond the violation of the trust of those that elected them in the first place.

A little further investigation found that even though a Congressman can be found guilty of bribery, extortion and even molestation, they may still draw, at taxpayer expense, a federal pension for the rest of their lives. How about that for a colossal waste of taxpayers money! I mean every once in awhile we see stories that are done a bit "tongue in cheek" about the government paying thousands of dollars per toilet seat or hammer, but this is directly a slap in the face of all us who are "law abiding" taxpayers to be paying the freight for these lowlifes.

I thought about not listing them because they don't deserve the coverage, good or bad, but I think that it would be best to go ahead and just give some names I came across and what states they represented and leave it up to anyone that reads this in those states to contact their current representatives and demand an explanation, and then hopefully action.