The Truth About The President's And Congressional Pensions

By now most of us have seen the follow meme either on facebook or via e-mail:

The person that started this meme unfortunately has their facts wrong.  Here is the accurate information:

• Members of Congress earn their $174,000 salaries only during their elected terms. (Nope, not for life.)

• They’re eligible for congressional pensions only after five years of service. (For a member of the House, that would mean getting elected to office at least three times.)

Those pensions can’t be tapped until retirement age — and can’t be collected while a lawmaker still gets a federal salary. So John Kerry, for example, can’t collect his congressional pension while he serves as secretary of state, according to Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union.

• The size of the pension depends on years of service and the average of a lawmaker’s highest three years of salary. The exact formula depends on when they started. Meanwhile, every paycheck, lawmakers contribute to both their pensions and Social Security.

• Most congressional pensions are nowhere near a lawmaker’s salary. Under a pre-1984 retirement formula, it couldn’t be more than 80 percent of a lawmaker’s final salary, not counting cost-of-living adjustments. Under current rules, lawmakers could theoretically get more than 80 percent of their salary, but most would need to serve more than 66 years to get that.

10th President of United States John Tyler’s (1790-1862) grandchildren still living today!

President John Tyler

An incredible story as we remember George Washington, Abe Lincoln and our other past presidents today on President's Day.  

One former president president isn't a well-known historical figure; he's probably best remembered

for helping to push through the annexation of Texas in 1845, shortly before leaving office.  Who was this President?   It was our 10th President John Tyler, born March 28, 1790 - almost 225 years ago and he still has two living grandchildren. 

 Tyler was William Henry Harrison’s Whig running mate in the 1840 election, which spawned one of the most famous campaign slogans in American history, “Tippecanoe and Tyler too.” On his 32nd day in office, Harrison died of complications from pneumonia. Tyler was then the first vice president to become president due to the death of his predecessor, serving from 1841-1845.

Tyler also has the distinction of becoming the first president to get married while in office — after his first wife died in 1842, Tyler married Julia Gardiner, who was 30 years younger than him, in 1844.

Harrison Tyler

So, how is it possible that a former president who died 150 years ago would still have direct descendants alive today? As it turns out, the Tyler men were known for fathering children late in life. And that math is pretty outstanding when added up.

Tyler fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler in 1853, at age 63.  Then, at the

Lyon Tyler (r) and grandfather President John Tyler (l)

age of 71, Lyon Gardiner Tyler fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. in 1924 and four years later at age 75, Harrison Ruffin Tyler. Both men are still alive today.

That means just three generations of the Tyler family are spread out over more than 200 years.