How lifers make a living in Congress—Bernie Sanders

Some of my regular readers are old enough to remember the Jimmy Carter years; he was ousted by Ronald Reagan because people were so upset by the economy. It was a terrible recession, and I didn't have a job in my regular field, library science, but found one being alert to gossip in my aerobic class.

Through my aerobics instructor, Corey, I got a temporary government contract job through JTPA (formerly CETA)  This is where the federal government takes your tax money, filters it through all the DC bureaucrats, then sends it to the states which employ a lot of people to fill out the forms to get it, where it is filtered through the state (Ohio) bureaucracy, then smaller programs are developed, where it is further spread out among local agencies and non-profits.

I worked for STEPS, Senior Training and Employment Program. Senior workers (over 50) had been hit particularly hard by that recession, so our little group of 5 or 6 went around the state putting on workshops and developing publications. It was a dream job for me, and I was employed. I even was able to write speeches for the head of the Bureau of Employment.

That's what most of these employment programs do--they employ the people who work in them. I don't know if a single person over 50 ever found a job due to our efforts, but probably thousands of government workers, either civil service, or grant temporary like me, or Area Agency on Aging employees, or the many training centers set up for teaching and skill development (private), the landlords who rented the space, or the small caterers who provided the lunches we served at the workshops managed to get through that recession. Plus, I met great people (state employees are fantastic) and had a good time--learned so much about how government works and why so many people sat alone in offices with nothing to do while we temporary workers were very busy.

This is a tiny picture of what Bernie and others in Congress have been doing for a living for their entire lives. They live well, but not much changes for the people who really need help.