Why Mitch Is Still in the Money
Mitch McConnell has not missed a paycheck since being rushed to the hospital more than six weeks ago. And while perhaps the former Senate Majority Leader doesn’t need the cash, with an estimated net worth of at least $30 million, for most average Americans the income he’s received so far as part of his $174,000 salary is a significant sum. Six weeks of paid leave amounts to more than $20,000 before taxes. The longtime senator is not just getting paid; he gets to keep his job amid his recovery despite his long history of trying to deny the same for millions of Americans. McConnell has been in the Senate long enough to vote against the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which passed despite his opposition and gave eligible workers job protections with 12 weeks of unpaid leave.
The Republican’s lucrative vanishing act has
reignited calls within his party for fixed terms in Congress, with Trump the latest to join the debate. “I think term limits are very important because I see what's happening,” the president told guests at the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Friday night as he lined up a joke about an aging lawmaker.
“The other day, a senator I knew got a text, a great guy, from his wife. And she said, "When you get home, I wanna have you immediately come up the stairs and make love to me." And he said, "I can't do both." The dinner crowd was suitably lukewarm. “Does anybody get that one?” a visibly frustrated Trump asked. “I thought that was actually pretty good. That was actually the only thing I thought was good in this whole fricking stupid speech that they wrote.”