Years ago I read that black consumers, more than any other market, bought goods for prestige associations.

Black culture seems to instill a near-compulsion to perform, and seek the attention of an audience.

Someone in NYC must have the courage to propose a referendum advising Congressional reps how little they should spend on such frills. It would be very entertaining to watch Rangel continue to make the case that he should be spending MORE taxpayer money — in the words of George Costanza — “all for the glorification of your MASSIVE ego!”

Just pay your taxes.

I’m buying the argument that Congressmen deserve a luxurious perk. They are super-ambitious people

I’m not, although I agree they are ambitious people. I don’t buy the argument that ambitious people need to be rewarded just for their ambition.

There are many people aside from the 535 retards in Congress who work hard and make an impact on our daily lives that also work for the government, without expecting “perks.” Its not exactly like being a Congresscritter is difficult work.

In fact, I

think fiscal responsibility is paying each congressman little to nothing, given them a scooter, as said above, and forcing them to pay their own way

is the way to combat corruption, not something that will be the cause of more of it. There are people willing to get into public service for whatever reason, and some of them are willing to give quite a bit more than their Congresscritter. Like Pablo says

the kind of people who can get by in a brand new Impala without a sense of shame.

In the past when I’ve been responsible for spending money that ultimately derived from taxes, I’ve been far more parsimonious with it than I ever was my own money~even though it was “small potatoes” in the larger picture, it was a huge amount of money to me. (Okay, so I think the amount of money that it takes to feed, clothe, and shelter family of four is a lot of money, and when I’m spending mutilples of that, I’m remembering what my sisters and their kids have to do without to pay for that, and multiplying that in my head to figure out how many other people are affected.)

While I still think Weiner is a retard (sorry, getting an “F” from NRA-ILA isn’t anything to be proud of, it’s an indication that you are a retard who doesn’t understand the Constitution you’ve (in his case) affirmed to uphold), at least he’s a retard I can respect, in contrast to whiny Rangel who’s argument “my car is my office.” I just don’t buy. I’ve met some Congresscritters for various reasons, and the only time I can imagine them using their car as an office is if they’re doing a drug deal or something. As far as his statement “I think my constituents would say, ‘With all the money that he gets, this is the respect he shows us?’,” I think it shows that he needs to be educating his constituents that the US is not a third world country that runs on flash and that if he really “respected” them, he’d be cruisin’ his district on a plain (waxed and polished) Huffy monospeed bicycle.