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US Taxpayers Fund “Lifestyle Coaching” For Senate Staff

U.S. taxpayers are shelling out $1.9 million this year to provide U.S. Senate staffers with lifestyle coaching courses. That’s right … we’re paying for a host of stress relief and interpersonal interaction training seminars for the very people who are running our country into the ground (and causing the rest…

U.S. taxpayers are shelling out $1.9 million this year to provide U.S. Senate staffers with lifestyle coaching courses.

That’s right … we’re paying for a host of stress relief and interpersonal interaction training seminars for the very people who are running our country into the ground (and causing the rest of us undue stress).

The courses are offered by through the Senate’s Office of Education and Training – which is famous for not being able to spell its own name.

But don’t worry … that mistake will soon be remedied because grammatical skills are one of the many issues addressed by these Capitol Hill courses.  Other classes available to Senate staffers?  Well there’s a seminar entitled “Be Curious, Not Furious” – which encourages staffers to find ways to understand and relate to their “challenging” co-workers (as opposed to arguing with them).  Another is called “Small Talk: Breaking The Ice In Social Situations” which aims to assist Senate staffers who have trouble opening up during after hours interactions.

“That’s Not What I Meant!” is a class focused on the impact of words – which teaches staffers that “communication is difficult and complex.” There’s even a course on “Forgiveness,” and another on the “Benefits Of A Good Night’s Sleep.”

And let’s not forget the “Pressure Point Therapy Workshop,” which teaches Senate staffers “how to locate and relieve active pressure.”

Amazing …

Obviously $1.9 million is barely a drop in the bucket of a $4 trillion government … but this sort of nonsense spending adds up across government.

Oh … and did we mention the Senate staffers who are receiving all this lifestyle coaching are also exempted from Obamacare?

Must be nice …

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44 comments

cuvinny December 18, 2013 at 11:25 am

Get a real job and you’ll realize every company has dumb training you need to take. Senate staffers need to be able to talk and work with people so their dumb training is more social. I’m a software engineer and I have to take those shitty classes too for interacting with clients.

Also, what does Obamacare have to do anything? They already have an insurance program

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Will Folks aka Sic December 18, 2013 at 11:49 am

Ah yes … anything to defend those government subsidized pressure point massages.

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venomachine December 18, 2013 at 11:55 am

Dude, you need to learn how to locate and relieve inner pressure.

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nitrat December 18, 2013 at 1:49 pm

In case you haven’t noticed, Sic would love to be back on the public payroll and benefit train. ‘Specially, with all them young’uns.
Although, I wouldn’t be surprised in Medicaid paid for all those pregnancies.

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CNSYD December 18, 2013 at 11:26 am

I obviously was not aware that staffers “run” the country. By analogy this means that when Sic Willie and carpetbagger Davis were staffers for Sanfraud, they “ran” SC. Any doubts then on why SC is in the condition that it is?

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Smirks December 18, 2013 at 11:39 am

Wait, so nobody in the private sector ever, ever, ever get any sort of classes like this paid for by their employer? Yeah, sure, whatever.

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CNSYD December 18, 2013 at 11:41 am

Obviously not at at Sic Willie, Inc.

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Will Folks aka Sic December 18, 2013 at 11:50 am

Big difference. In private sector WE’RE NOT PAYING FOR IT. Unless of course it’s Boeing, in which case we are …

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venomachine December 18, 2013 at 11:54 am

Yes you are. You don’t think such costs aren’t passed along to the customer, do you??

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MashPotato December 18, 2013 at 12:09 pm

Companies can only afford these things if their product is successful. They’d be easy to cut if they were to lose business or otherwise be forced to trim excess costs. Seeing the gov’t lose a trillion dollars a year means shit like this needs to go.

major major December 18, 2013 at 12:24 pm

In the private sector you have a choice of whether or not to buy the product/service and thus absorb those costs. Try taking that approach with your tax payments.

Smirks December 18, 2013 at 12:55 pm

In the private sector, often things like these kinds of classes rarely makes a significant impact on the cost of the product or service.

Fun fact: Senators get, as a bare minimum, $1.9 million to hire just administrative/clerical staff. They also get about a half mil just to hire legislative assistants.

http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/Congressional_offices_and_staff#Congressional_staff

(Those numbers are based off of something from 2007, not sure if it has increased since then.)

I_Callahan December 19, 2013 at 3:28 pm

I can choose not to buy a product. I CAN’T choose not to pay taxes. No comparison. Try again.

Smirks December 18, 2013 at 12:45 pm

Public employees are compensated entirely from tax dollars, that includes their pay, benefits, etc. If we are going to chop classes on ending stress relief, why not cut their pay to minimum wage, take away all vacation/sick days, eliminate any kind of health or retirement benefits, and so on?

Congressional staffers likely get paid enough so that those of decent quality actually stick around and get the job done efficiently. They likely get classes on stress management because they have generally stressful jobs. We treat them better than McDonald’s burger flippers because we want something better than McDonald’s quality. Unless you’re going to tell us that you were paid too much while working under Sanford, I’m not sure why this is such a big deal.

If you want to blame the staffers for what their bosses do, does this mean we get to blame you for what Sanford did as governor?

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CNSYD December 18, 2013 at 1:51 pm

My observation is that most Congressional staffers are relatively recent college graduates. Their salaries are such that it is difficult to meet the cost of living in DC. However, they do it for the resume building and contact making.

scsweepin December 18, 2013 at 3:37 pm

You are correct, sir. I did it myself. $600/month in the early 70’s. It was the only year in my life that my father made my car payment, either before or after. The car payment was $96/month.

richard40 December 19, 2013 at 7:05 pm

I am not aware of a critical shortage of applicants for senate staffers, so I see no reason to waste tax dollars on lavish benefits.

richard40 December 19, 2013 at 7:02 pm

Private sector employers can buy stupid stuff with their own money if they wish. But I have no choice about paying taxes, and resent it when taxpayer money is wasted.

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euwe max December 18, 2013 at 11:48 am

These are the people that libertarians want running the country. Sociopaths, totally unconnected with the people.

They earned their “right” to excess in the midst of misery.

It’s what the founders intended – wealth and privilege.

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Chess Champion December 18, 2013 at 3:24 pm

Libertarians want senate staffers running the country?

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euwe max December 18, 2013 at 3:34 pm

Yep.

They’re mostly kids that never grew up anyway… independent carpet cleaning and Jet Black franchise owners…

pot smokers and self proclaimed geniuses who see “the truth” behind enlightened self-interest: rubes must be relieved of the money they never should have gotten together with in the first place.

Too smart to be liberals, too right-wing to be conservatives…

kooks who serve, yet claim their “independence.”

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Chess Champion December 18, 2013 at 3:49 pm

Good to know. Now I know how to identify these kooks.

Pot smoking self proclaimed genius statists that own cheesy franchises.

Good call!

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euwe max December 18, 2013 at 3:53 pm

No problem. Glad I could be of assistance.

Another tip – acne scars.

Chess Champion December 18, 2013 at 5:13 pm

I don’t understand, isn’t them wanting staffers to run things an implicit endorsement of statism?

euwe max December 18, 2013 at 5:33 pm

Nope.

The first thing you have to understand about libertarians is sociopaths rule. Bad behavior is the only requirement for membership.

Once you have that down, then you can see libertarians rewarding selfishness, arrogance, ignorance, low-brow humor, school yard irreverence, respect for greed and fuck-you-ism.

It’s like being cool, only not,

Chess Champion December 18, 2013 at 8:02 pm

“The first thing you have to understand about libertarians is sociopaths rule.”

Yea, I don’t know about that. The staffers are flunkies/sociopaths for sociopaths that got elected. In fact, as you can tell by coming here, it seems most of those elected are sociopaths. I don’t see many of them claiming to be libertarians.

It seems you may need to work on your philosophy a bit, refine it, it’s a bit rough around the edges.

“Nope.”

Huh, well may I recommend a high school course in composition?

euwe max December 18, 2013 at 8:18 pm

It’s too late for me. The die is cast. I’ll never reach the pinnacle of libertarian composition that the Pauls have.

Sociopaths bring me no end of entertainment – especially when one set of sociopaths elect sociopaths that another set of sociopaths can’t stand! Hoo boy! Them country folks sure are entertainin’!

But, I digress.

The sociopaths aren’t necessarily the staffers, the sociopaths are the ones who cheer reported sociopathic *behavior* – whether it’s actually being indulged in by sociopaths or not. You know, the bushies screaming “Vier weitere Jahre” after 4 years of the boy king?

That sure turned out well, didn’t it?

richard40 December 19, 2013 at 7:01 pm

So people who want less gov and more liberty, are to blame for a special interest break for senate staffers. You are totally deluded.

euwe max December 19, 2013 at 7:19 pm

Usually, when a post starts out with “so” and dives immediately off the cliff of reason, I’m like, you know… taken aback. But it happens so often now with all the sociopaths trying to provide false choices, I don’t even miss a step. Watch this:

Is that the only conclusion you could derive from what I posted?

Guest December 18, 2013 at 7:42 pm

while(1)
duh

Strange is the best December 18, 2013 at 5:25 pm

I find it incredibly odd that you received a “thumbs up” from the founding editor.

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euwe max December 18, 2013 at 5:29 pm

Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.

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richard40 December 19, 2013 at 6:58 pm

Are you confusing libertarians with liberals. I know of few libertarians who would support a program like this, and even fewer who want our country run by senate staffers, since they prefer less gov, and deference to the private sector.

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euwe max December 19, 2013 at 7:02 pm

Libertarians ALL believe that a man is worthy of his hire. Whatever he gets for what he does is no one’s business but the employer and the employee.

If it’s YOUR business, then you can change it up the way you want. If it’s in the government, well, then – majority rules – certainly taking advantage of a service that is offered to you for what you were employed to do is something EVERY libertarian would do, unless he just didn’t feel like a blow job.

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richard40 December 19, 2013 at 7:23 pm

I am a bit confused that you regard beleifs like a private employer and employee being able to agree on whatever salary they wish, while we should be careful how we spend taxpayer money, as being sociopathic. I always thought of it as the essense of liberty and responsible government.

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euwe max December 19, 2013 at 8:35 pm

You are at least 8 bits confused by the sound of it. Let me help you with a sound byte.

The employee isn’t the sociopath – the guys who think that conspicuous consumption in the midst of misery are the sociopaths.

Get it? The ones that would rather everyone else suffer so they can get the stink scraped off their feet by a cute little Asian girl who doesn’t have enough rice to feed her illegitimate child.

The sociopath is the one who cavalierly dismisses the woman with breast cancer that doesn’t have insurance by saying “she is getting what she deserves – I sowed my wild oats, but I managed to pull myself up from my own bootstraps – I never asked anything from anyone!”

Sincerely Yours,
   8 bit Max.

500_lb_Gorrila December 19, 2013 at 9:23 pm

Uhhh, you do realize that this is the exact opposite of what libertarians want, these is pure liberal-aristocracy stuff.

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euwe max December 19, 2013 at 9:54 pm

these is pure liberal-aristocracy stuff.
——

Libertarians say they deserve whatever they get, and no one should have claim to their property.

If they are doctors, for instance, they shouldn’t have to buy insurance unless they want to.

If they are lawyers, for instance, they shouldn’t have to deal with any federal regulations.

If they steal a shitload of money, and get away with it, they feel it’s their right to live in a gated community in the midst of a poverty stricken area, and eat peacock tongues in eel-eye sauce in full sight of starving children, all the while carrying on a conversation about how the poor could have all the same things they do, if only they’d get off their asses and work for it.

There’s no crying in libertarian world. It’s all about greed, and keep your hands of my stack… government is a scam, the poor are leeches, and my heroin is no one’s business but mine.

If I missed something, I’m sure you’ll fill in the details.

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TontoBubbaGoldstein December 18, 2013 at 2:48 pm

And let’s not forget the “Pressure Point Therapy Workshop,” which teaches Senate staffers ”how to locate and relieve active pressure.”

*Please excuse any spelling mistakes, as TBG is typing on a “Droid”.*

Surely DC must have some warehouses that can do this for cheaper?

*Variation of one of Shifty’s jokes…….

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Undocumented worker December 18, 2013 at 5:15 pm

The CIA has a history of setting up brothels to conduct experiments, can’t we go to them for advice?

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House of Cards December 18, 2013 at 3:23 pm

Why the hell can’t we return to the days when the little Mussolini’s to be were sent off to the Asian massage parlor for a quick fix and extortion material?

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ContrarianView December 19, 2013 at 3:49 pm

The scandal here is not the frivolous fringe benefit for Senate staffers. The scandal is actually about a lucrative contract given to a Democrat party crony. Money for political allies is the purpose of this deal, and the “training” is merely the cover story.

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LouGots December 19, 2013 at 4:22 pm

I shouldn’t ask: are the staffers taking these programs on their own time of “company” time? Probably a dumb question.

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500_lb_Gorrila December 19, 2013 at 9:19 pm

Good thing we cut veteran’s pensions to help fund this…

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