The Speaker of the House in Texas, Dade Phelan, is calling on Democrats who fled the state to delay the passage of a voting bill to forfeit their daily pay. In the state of Texas, legislators receive $7200 per year and a $221 stipend for each day that they work.
Since those democratic legislators are flying off to DC instead of working, Phelan believes they should give up their pay.
#txlege pic.twitter.com/LGXWt0PWGR
— Dade Phelan (@DadePhelan) July 14, 2021
So far, two Democrats have responded. The first, Chris Turner said he wasn’t doing it. The second, Michelle Beckley acknowledged that if she wasn’t working, she shouldn’t be paid.
FYI: Representative Beckley will not be accepting any per diem payments and will return any per diem that has been paid to her each day that she has not been in Austin since the quorum break. #txlege #freedomtovote #righttovote pic.twitter.com/zLfNraDGR8
— Michelle Beckley for TX Lt Gov (@BeckleyforTX) July 14, 2021
It doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense that these legislators can be arrested for not showing up for their jobs, but still get paid even though they aren’t showing up. Imagine deciding to just skip work for a few weeks to tell the world that your job is horrible because the break room is no longer going to have free snacks left out for the employees, then coming back and telling your boss you deserve to be paid for all the time you took off. That’s basically the situation here. This is a political stunt that ultimately isn’t going to have any bearing on whether the bill gets passed or not. It’s also all based on lies and is designed to smear the state of Texas.
With that in mind, here’s a suggestion for Dade Phelan. This isn’t the first time Texas Democrats have done this and it probably won’t be the last, so make them pay a price for it. Change the rules so that the next time legislators flee the state, they lose their daily payments AND part of their yearly stipend. Let them pay at least SOME price for doing this and they may be more reluctant to play this game next time around.
John Hawkins is the author of 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know. You can find him on Parler here and on Twitter here.
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