Last evening Rachel Maddow was reviewing all the legislation that has not been passed by Congress this year - including routine legislation like a Farm Bill, Water Bill, Defense Bill, etc. - even as the GOP controlled House voted on the symbolic repeal of Obamacare roughly four dozen times. House Republicans like to chide the poor to get a job and be responsible for their own security, yet Congress most assuredly is NOT doing its job. But then, it's hard to do your job when you have more than two-thirds of the year off from work. The gulf between the lives of professional politicians in Congress and average Americans has never been so stark. Think Progress looks at this out of touch Congress. Here are highlights:
Congress has just eight days on the job between now and the start of the next session on January 7, with the House coming back on Monday and adjourning for the year by December 13 and the Senate returning on December 9 only to most likely adjourn for the year on December 20. In total, the House will have had 239 days off this year with even more scheduled for next year.
Certainly members of Congress have work to do when they’re not required to be in D.C., including meetings with constituents, running their other offices, talking to local community leaders, and doing media interviews. Some may also use those days off on other jobs for supplemental income, but most make side money by owning businesses or from investments.
The picture is very different for the rest of Americans, however. The country doesn’t guarantee its citizens any paid vacation or holiday time off, unlike 20 of its developed peers. All European Union countries guarantee workers at least 20 paid days of vacation a year, with France going so far as to lock in 30, the United Kingdom mandating 28, and Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden guaranteeing 25.
Of course, many American employers still give their workers paid vacation time and holidays off. But that holds true for fewer and fewer workers. . . . . The biggest drops have come for those who work part-time — a position more and more find themselves in — or for employers with fewer than 100 workers.
The U.S. also lags developed peers in other kinds of paid time off. It is the only one out of the top 15 most competitive that doesn’t guarantee paid sick days, which leaves 40 percent of private sector workers out of paid leave. Those who do get paid sick days also get fewer of them than two decades ago. The country is even more lonely when it comes to maternity leave to take care of a new child, joining just three countries out of 178 in failing to guarantee paid time off. Fathers similarly get no guarantee of paid time off when a new child arrives.
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