Louisiana Voice

The current number of co-sponsors of House Resolution 82, now officially a teenager, which ostensibly would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) programs that negatively impact retirement earnings for certain government employees in Louisiana as well as the spouses of others who pay into Social Security all their working lives is now up to 190, a 37.7 percent increase over the 138 reported by LouisianaVoice back in May.

Newcomers to the Louisiana delegation Julia Letlow (R) and Troy Carter (D) have signed on since our May update, giving Louisiana a clean sweep among its six House members. Kentucky is the only other southern state with 100 percent co-sponsorship among its six members.

None of the four Arkansas or seven Alabama members have signed on, but the most abysmal showing was that of South Carolina, where not a single one of its 17 House members is listed as a co-sponsor, according to GOVTRACK, the service that monitors Congressional activity on a daily basis.

Of the 122 House members in the 11 southern states, there were only 40 (32.7 percent) co-sponsors, 11 points lower than the 43.7 percent for the entire House.

It was somewhat revealing to note that the political party that middle-class Americans believe is most representative of their interests has shown the least inclination to come to the aid of say, teachers, who are presently ineligible to draw on spouses’ Social Security even though that spouse may have paid into the system for decades.

The GPO reduces or even eliminates Social Security benefits for public employees who are members of a retirement plan and do not pay into Social Security – even if they previously held private-sector jobs and did pay into the system.

The 48 Republicans listed as co-sponsors comprised only 22.5 percent of the total House GOP membership (213) while 64 percent of the 222 Democrats are included in the list of co-sponsors. Remove the 10 Republicans in Kentucky and Louisiana from the equation, and the participation rate for the GOP drops to a dismal 17.8 percent.

Besides the failure of South Carolina, Arkansas and Alabama to have even a single co-sponsor, other southern states with lackluster support for working Americans included North Carolina (four of 13 members), Georgia (three of 14), Virginia (four of 11), Mississippi (one of four) and Florida (nine of 27).

Conspicuously absent from the roster of co-sponsors were QAnon darlings Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia who apparently are far too busy with their farewell tour to be burdened with such mundane chores as performing their constitutional duties.

Lest those of you currently barred from receiving benefits get your hopes up that a sufficient number of co-sponsors will eventually join the fray to get the resolution called up for a vote, just remember that this resolution has been around a very long time and way back in 2008, it actually had 352 CO-SPONSORS out of 435 representatives. That’s 81 percent of the total House membership.

It only takes a simple majority (218) to pass a resolution and 292 (a two-thirds majority) to override a possible veto. Did I mention there were 352 co-sponsors back in 2008?

That should convey a crystal-clear message: Congress has no intention (never had, never will) of approving the resolution. If it did, it would have been called up for a vote 13 years ago.

So, when you hear all those warnings about Social Security SCAMS, just remember: you’ve already been scammed by the slickest scam artist of them all – your guvmint.

And in this case, both political parties are equally complicit in this little shell game.

You wanted to see bipartisanship in Congress? Well, that’s true bipartisanship.