staffer – Moe Lane

Much better.

African American staffers on Democratic federal-level campaigns are paid 70 cents on the dollar compared to their white counterparts; Hispanics are paid 68 cents on the dollar.

Women on campaigns are also paid less than men, although at a rate not too far from parity: 95 cents on the dollar. Interestingly, although the proportions of staff are more skewed towards white men on Republican campaigns, the income disparities are more pronounced on Democratic campaigns.

(H/T: The Washington Free Beacon) I’ve taken the liberty of reproducing the New Organizing Institute’s numbers in this regard, because for some reason they didn’t want to put the following information into an easily-searchable form: Continue reading Are you politically ambitious, and a minority? The GOP pays better.

This is what we call an unforced error.

Executive summary: Heritage scholar Dr. Salim Furth was testifying to the Senate Budget Committees about European austerity programs, and how “to date, ‘austerity’ in Europe has consisted mainly of tax increases.” This apparently upset Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (Democrat from Rhode Island, and don’t worry if you don’t recognize the name: he’s usually a complete nonentity, frankly)…

So when Whitehouse got his turn to ask the witnesses questions, he lit into the Heritage expert. “Dr. Furth, I am very concerned about your testimony,” Whitehouse began, “I am concerned that your testimony to this committee has been meretricious.”

Whitehouse then produced a chart showing that, among other things, not only had France cut spending, which was the opposite of what Furth testified, but that France had cut spending far more than they raised taxes.

Continue reading @SenWhitehouse must think “meretricious” means “proof my staff can’t do research.”