Double Dipping: I Earned You, You Can't Do It

As is true anywhere politicians ply their so-called trade (if lying and cheating can thus be called), Albany, New York, the state's capital, is rife with hypocrisy.

Taking advantage of quirky state law (which they themselves authored), Albany politicians can retire one day and return the next, collecting both their pension and their salary. The only loophole in the law is they have to be off the payroll for one day, so many just wait until the end of one term in office (on Dec. 31), retire, and then return to work on Jan. 1 for the new term. Bam--two paychecks, or what's called double dipping.

This is how Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg engineered his double dip at the end of last year. He now earns $101,500 in salary and $72,000 in pension funds.

And catch this? Last year, the 75-year-old Weisenberg sponsored legislation to outlaw double dipping at the local government level.

When asked about the seeming contradiction in his own actions and his sponsorship of the measure, he quipped: "I don't see this as that [double dipping]. This is something I earned."

The arrogance and hypocrisy are typical of our ruling class, which is now conspiring to set up one health care system for us Average Janes and Joes (read: "public option") and another VIP (read: privatized) health care system for themselves.

Not only is that not "change you can believe in"; it's just business as usual, with the public being played for suckers.