Do as I say, not as I do

I have been away on vacation for the past 10 days and will probably do a write up on what it was like. For the most part, I have avoided news and didn't have internet access. I have been trying to catch up and found this article on student loan repayment for House and Senate Aides.

This program has been around for a while, but was recently modified to include taxpayer funded repayment for staffers make up to $168,411. As the article points out:

The move to boost the income cap was made just a month after the House voted 328-93 in March to slap a 90 percent tax on bonuses for executives from companies that took bailout money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

This only amounts to 12.6 million per year, which is only a tiny fraction of the budget, but this just seems to be a poor use of money at this time. I can understand that the House and Senate want to attract the most talented people, but is this really necessary? From what I can tell, these are good jobs which receive thousands of applicants. I find it hard to believe that they are unable to attract decent employees.

I think that taxpayer funded loan repayments are a good thing, but should only be used when it can be shown that the public is being served. I would rather this go towards repaying the loans of doctors that are serving in areas where there is a shortage of physicians or people that work for legal aid. How about using to help teachers that agree to teach where there is a huge demand?

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