Olver Goes Double-Dipping
by Aaron Margolis, July 13th, 2008 at 04:09pm
U.S. Representative John Olver (D-Amherst) has it made. He collects a nice congressional salary and he’s collecting a modest state pension. Life is good for Rep. Olver.
In these days of government penny-pinching, nonstop override requests and an overall sagging economy, nothing really angers the masses like a good, old-fashioned double-dipping hack.
And it turns out that a member of the Bay State congressional delegation is doing exactly that.
Not only is U.S. Rep. John Olver (D-Amherst) raking in a $165,000-a-year salary in Congress, he also takes home a $27,000 annual state pension, records show.
Olver, who has been in Congress since 1991, is a former state representative and senator who served 22 years on Beacon Hill. Before that he was a chemistry professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. His wife, Rose, is a professor at Amherst College.
State GOP spokesman Barney Keller said of Olver: “It’s fine if Congressman Olver wants to Double-Dip with a waffle cone, but it shouldn’t be O.K. for him to do it with taxpayer dollars.”
Olver, 72, did not return calls.
Nathan Bech, candidate for Congress running against Olver, said “if Olver wants to collect his pension, he should at least have the common decency to retire.”
From now, just take one dip and end it.
Entry Filed under: Capitol Hill, Election 2008
3 Comments
1. V | July 14th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Is this any surprise to anyone?
This far left stooge has only sponsored 38 Bills since 1993 and only 5 made it out of committee. (Although he has “co-sponsored” 2,844 of his “peers” bills.) His most recent bill is the extremely useful “H.Res.1050 Recognizing Pittsfield, Massachusetts, as being home to the earliest known reference to the word “baseball” in the United States as well as being the birthplace of college baseball.” Woo Hoo.
Recently, he has been criticized for defending legislative “earmarks”.
This story about collecting his state pension just reinforces proof of the oligarchy. We are serfs living on feudal lands.
2. Teddy H | July 22nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
What is wrong with receiving a pension? Senator or not, Hasn’t Olver has spent time teaching at a state university, qualifying him for state-pension?
Also, could you send the story regarding his support earmarks?
* Note Earmarks are the only way that your representative can fix YOUR roads . Recall Constitution 101: The Congress is granted the power of the Purse through many avenues, including earmarks. Earmarks become pernicious when they are used for PRIVATE GAIN (See Chuck Rangel’s (D) $30 million New Library in honor of, well, himself) or to promote public works which are ploys for local constituents ( See Ted Steven’s (R) Bridge to Nowhere).
I’d appreciate your feedback.
3. V | July 23rd, 2008 at 6:19 am
The problem with receiving a pension? I think Aaron summed that up pretty well.
Here are the links, read away.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/08/09/one_mans_pork/
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/congressman_john_olver_critici_2.html