I need someone to please pinch me and tell me that this is a cruel joke being played by our representatives.   These men and women are seriously telling the Liberian people with a straight face that they need this much for travel when the average civil servant currently makes a meager twenty six U.S dollars a month, an amount not even sufficient to buy a bag of rice? Where exactly are these lawmakers traveling that they need such a huge monthly amount for travel?  Our lawmakers are requesting travel allowance that U.S leaders of the House and Senate are not even allotted.  If the U.S Speaker and Senate Majority leaders are allotted $10,000 per fiscal year, it is safe to assume that non ranking members are allotted much less.  

            The United States Code, Title 2, section 3 states that, "compensation and allowances of members of Congress Effective fiscal year 1978 and each fiscal year thereafter, the expense allowances of the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate are increased to $10,000 each fiscal year for each leader; provided further that the Majority Leader, the Minority Leader, the   Majority Whip, and the Minority Whip may receive the expense allowance (a) as reimbursement for actual expenses incurred upon certification and documentation of such expenses".    Each leader including the Speaker of the House is allotted $10,000 each fiscal year for travel and other related expenses, provided once again, that proper travel documentation is provided. 

            Let's think about this logically.  The richest nation on earth allocates $10,000 a year for travel and other related expenses - approximately $833 per month – to ranking members of the House and Senate.    So why is it that one of the poorest nations on earth (Liberia) is allowing all members of the House to request $1,500 USD or $18,000 a year, eight thousand dollars more than what's allocated for ranking members of the U.S House and Senate?  Folks, this is what you get when you put people who never had non government related income generating careers of their own, and now must rely on the government to support them.   Take a look at members of the U.S congress and top U.S politicians, and you'll see that although many of these people have been on the political scene for most of their lives, the majority, if not all of them have had   or have careers outside of politics and government.  President George Bush was a business man, Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice was a professor, both the Clintons are lawyers, Barack Obama is a lawyer, House speaker Dennis Hastert was a teacher, VP Dick Cheney was a business man, Senate majority leader Bill Frist is a doctor with his own private practice.   I could go on and on, but you get the point.  I am not implying that these American lawmakers are not opportunistic, or just as selfish, the point I trying to make is that that these law makers don't need to rely on government to survive, because with or without government compensation they are able to live a comfortable life, financially speaking.
           

Our lawmakers want fifteen hundred for travel allowance while at the same time expecting civil servants to accept unrealistic LIVING wage.   Do these people really believe that civil servants can survive on $26 or $30 USD a month and be honest government workers at the same time?  Let's assume that the average price for a bag of rice is twenty six dollars –I want to err on the side of conservatism, but we all know bag of rice is at least three dollars higher – and the average government worker has at least two school age children, a husband or wife, doesn't have a car but pays for transportation to and from work five days a week, monthly rent, and other family and household expenses.   

            Bear with me and allow me to do some quick elementary math. The current yearly wage for civil servants in Liberia is $312 dollars ($26 dollars a month). Let's again assume that a civil servant is married and has two children with average monthly expenses consisting of: Rent = $25 per month, times twelve months = $300 dollars a year. Bag of rice = $26 per month, times twelve months = $312 dollars a year.   Rice and rent together equal $612 dollars a year, three hundred dollars more than their yearly wage, excluding other expenses such as transportation and school fees. Even if the proposed fifty dollars monthly salary is approved, civil servants will be making $600 dollars a year, sixty percent less than our representatives proposed travel allowance.   Of course, fifty dollars per month is much better than twenty six dollars, but still far below the proposed fifteen hundred a month, or eighteen thousand a year in transportation allowance our representatives are requesting.   I am not against our representatives having travel allowance; however, their request should be a realistic one because there are far too many struggling government employees.   Is $1,500 monthly transportation allowance really necessary when most civil servants can barely survive on their current income?  I am daring our representatives to either increase civil servants pay, or be unselfish just for once, and stop the fifteen hundred transportation allowance nonsense.