House raises salary cap for DOMA lawyer to $1.5 million

[smile72]

Five months after House Republicans announced that they had set a $500,000 salary cap for the lawyer hired to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, a revised contract shows that the pay limit has been lifted to three times that amount.

According to a new contract dated Sept. 30, a revised salary cap of $1.5 million has been set for Paul D. Clement, the former Bush administration solicitor general who was tapped in April by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to lead the House’s defense of DOMA in court. A copy of the new contract was provided by a House Democratic aide.

The original contract stated that Clement would be paid at a rate of $520 per hour with a salary cap of $500,000, although that amount could be “raised by written agreement between the parties with the approval of the [Committee on House Administration].”

Boehner announced in March that the House’s Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group — a five-member panel comprising the chamber’s top three Republicans and top two Democrats — had voted to instruct the House General Counsel to defend DOMA, the federal law banning recognition of same-sex marriage.

The move came one month after President Obama instructed the Justice Department to no longer defend the constitutionality of the law.

On Tuesday, Democrats pounced on the news of Clement’s revised salary cap.

“It is absolutely unconscionable that Speaker Boehner is tripling the cost for his legal boondoggle to defend the indefensible Defense of Marriage Act,” Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said in a statement. “At a time when Americans are hurting and job creation should be the top priority, it just shows how out of touch House Republicans have become that they would spend up to $1.5 million dollars to defend discrimination in our country.”

House Administration Committee Democrats said that they were “disappointed” by the news and argued that “further spending to defend DOMA is simply unconscionable.”

“This ongoing expense is a complete waste of taxpayer money,” Reps. Bob Brady (D-Pa.), Charlie Gonzales (D-Texas) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said in a statement. “We call on the Republican Leadership to explain why they will invest in protecting discrimination and how any of this can put Americans back to work.”

Boehner’s office defended the move and renewed the speaker’s call for the Justice Department to pay for the cost of the House’s legal defense of DOMA.

“The cost of this litigation should and will be borne by the Department of Justice — which is shirking its responsibility to defend the law,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said.

Source:The Washington Post

This makes me sick.

 

[nando]

why can't people see these people for what they are? i don't even know if supporters are stupid are just as evil as their leaders.

 

[dickfour]

I'll tell you what makes me sick.
Obama administration giving 500 million dollars to solyndra when they knew it would go belly up to bail out wealthy investors that also happen to be big Obama donors. You know what else makes me sick? How the Obama administration is banning the inhalers that over 1 million Asthma sufferers rely on for relief. The reason it's a generic so big drug companies aren't making buttloads of cash. Now that the inhalers are banned asthma sufferers will have to pay considerably more for a product that doesn't work as well. basically Obama lining the pockets of the drug companies. A lawyer making 1.5 million doesn't even rate when compared to this type of corruption

 

[Cyan]

DOMAcastle's lawyers are clearly paid too much, I'll have to change that!

 

[retKHAAAN]

I'll tell you what makes me sick.
Obama administration giving 500 million dollars to solyndra when they knew it would go belly up to bail out wealthy investors that also happen to be big Obama donors. You know what else makes me sick? How the Obama administration is banning the inhalers that over 1 million Asthma sufferers rely on for relief. The reason it's a generic so big drug companies aren't making buttloads of cash. Now that the inhalers are banned asthma sufferers will have to pay considerably more for a product that doesn't work as well. basically Obama lining the pockets of the drug companies. A lawyer making 1.5 million doesn't even rate when compared to this type of corruption

I think this applies here...

QUOTE(riposte @ Sep 21 2011, 04:20 PM) If you use the words "conservative" or "liberal", "right wing" or "left wing", in serious discussion on a regular basis, you both have a stick up your ass and you are contributing to the division the "liberal media" and Fox News are pushing onto you... It might be a better service to your country to run for local office and actually take a step towards making a difference than to post on random internet forums regarding how Republicans hate the poor or how Obamacare is "socialist" and unconstitutional...

Is that all you're here for is political argument? Because I'm sure there are far better forums for that than this one.

Oh, and nice defense

"Oh yeah?...Well Obama did something TOO!" You are defending poor decisions by claiming that someone else made poor decisions...

 

[nando]

I'll tell you what makes me sick.
Obama administration giving 500 million dollars to solyndra when they knew it would go belly up to bail out wealthy investors that also happen to be big Obama donors. You know what else makes me sick? How the Obama administration is banning the inhalers that over 1 million Asthma sufferers rely on for relief. The reason it's a generic so big drug companies aren't making buttloads of cash. Now that the inhalers are banned asthma sufferers will have to pay considerably more for a product that doesn't work as well. basically Obama lining the pockets of the drug companies. A lawyer making 1.5 million doesn't even rate when compared to this type of corruption

i remember the inhaler ban, except i remember the ban started in 2008 by bush, the final deadline was set for this year but the policy was actually bush's administration.

 

[retKHAAAN]

I'll tell you what makes me sick.
Obama administration giving 500 million dollars to solyndra when they knew it would go belly up to bail out wealthy investors that also happen to be big Obama donors. You know what else makes me sick? How the Obama administration is banning the inhalers that over 1 million Asthma sufferers rely on for relief. The reason it's a generic so big drug companies aren't making buttloads of cash. Now that the inhalers are banned asthma sufferers will have to pay considerably more for a product that doesn't work as well. basically Obama lining the pockets of the drug companies. A lawyer making 1.5 million doesn't even rate when compared to this type of corruption


i remember the inhaler ban, except i remember the ban started in 2008 by bush, the final deadline was set for this year but the policy was actually bush's administration.


to further that...

QUOTE

This isn't just the Obama administration’s fault: Washington joined a global treaty banning CFCs in 1987, though back then the feds said inhalers served an essential health need and were exempt from any ban.

But in 2006 an FDA panel decreed that -- asthmatics be damned -- the inhalers weren't essential, and ordered them phased out in favor of models that use a different delivery mechanism.

so yeah...of course it's Obama's fault

 

[smile72]

nando I can't understand why their districts even like them (probably rich and white). Boehner probably will be reelected, he only has to appeal to his district and if his district wants massive cuts in government spending, fighting for bans on abortion and gay marrriage and no tax increase on millionaires. I'm not fond of Boehner, I find him phony not nearly as much as Mitt Romney but still phony.

 

[FluffyLunamoth]

Okay, am I the only one feeling this is getting out of hand? Smile72 is posting news articles left, right, and center. He is NOT giving sources for them, and they're...rather relevant to anything at all. They're just random little things, and almost seem like spam for him to get status as a news poster...

 

[smile72]

Nope I like posting news about politics!!!!!!!! And nobody else ever posts about American politics.

 

[Thesolcity]

Okay, am I the only one feeling this is getting out of hand? Smile72 is posting news articles left, right, and center. He is NOT giving sources for them, and they're...rather relevant to anything at all. They're just random little things, and almost seem like spam for him to get status as a news poster...

I thought we had a news cap for non-staff?

I must be imagining things.

 

[Hero-Link]

Nope I like posting news about politics!!!!!!!! And nobody else ever posts about American politics.

Just don't spam politics news... not everyone is an american. You don't see me posting news about what happens in Europe.

Or else the spam would be MUCH worse... as we are having tons of issues (with my country included in them...)

 

[smile72]

Yeah, i guess I could understand that but when the 2012 election gets closer I'm probably going to create a topic announcing the winners of the elections of the House and Presidency. Sorry I'll tune down the politics, maybe one article every 4 days- 7days or so.

 

[TLSS_N]

Nope I like posting news about politics!!!!!!!! And nobody else ever posts about American politics.

except for me... and I try to post for news worldwide as well.

 

[smile72]

Sorry I left you out Living Shadow.

 

[TLSS_N]

Sorry I left you out Living Shadow.

no prob

 

[smile72]

Thanks, by the way Living Shadow do you consider yourself more left, right or middle on the political spectrum?

 

[BlueStar]

I'll tell you what makes me sick.
Obama administration giving 500 million dollars to solyndra when they knew it would go belly up to bail out wealthy investors that also happen to be big Obama donors. You know what else makes me sick? How the Obama administration is banning the inhalers that over 1 million Asthma sufferers rely on for relief. The reason it's a generic so big drug companies aren't making buttloads of cash. Now that the inhalers are banned asthma sufferers will have to pay considerably more for a product that doesn't work as well. basically Obama lining the pockets of the drug companies. A lawyer making 1.5 million doesn't even rate when compared to this type of corruption

OK, now you've got that out of your system, any thoughts on the actual subject of the thread rather than trying to change the subject with a whine of "But Obaaammaaaaaa"?

Seems many US Conservatives are only for less spending and small government unless it's government money being spent on making sure the government gets to decide if people they don't like can marry or not.

 

[TLSS_N]

Thanks, by the way Living Shadow do you consider yourself more left, right or middle on the political spectrum?

I like to consider myself along the lines of a goldwater conservative. yourself?

 

[smile72]

Pretty much liberal.