Joni Ernst: “Our current pay structure provides no financial incentive for our senior enlisted members to lead at the highest levels…”

From the fields in Iowa to the battlefields in Iraq, I have worked my entire life. Unlike most of my colleagues in the Senate, I am not a millionaire. I know what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck.

While government boondoggles abound, the term is now officially in the law books for the first time. No politician wants their prized pet project to carry that label, but now there's no escaping it.

We owe it to all Americans to stop the government grift.

In 2024 alone, 10,100 million-dollar earners received nearly $97.4 million in unemployment compensation. That amounts to each being paid $9,650, roughly the cost of a new Rolex watch.