Forced to pay his fair share.
U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush must give up 15 percent of his congressional salary to begin repaying more than $1 million he owes on a delinquent bank loan to his now-shuttered Englewood church, a judge in Chicago ordered Wednesday.
Cook County Circuit Judge Alexander White ordered the garnishment of more than $2,100 a month from the South Side Democrat’s $174,000 annual federal pay in what was another setback for the longtime congressman-turned-pastor who once promised that the house of worship he founded would help rebuild Englewood.
Though rare, it isn’t the first time a congressman’s wages have been garnished. In one case, in 2014, it happened to U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat who owed more than $1.3 million from a loan for a carwash.
Rush was ordered last June to repay the loan made more than a dozen years ago to buy the limestone, Gothic-style building at 6430 S. Harvard Ave. for what became Beloved Community Church of God in Christ.
Rush bought the former Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, built in the 1920s, in 2005 for $800,000, in part with a $550,000 bank loan from New City Bank. Rush and seven other church members cosigned the loan to the church. Rush’s creditors dropped the other co-signers of the loan from their lawsuit, leaving Rush liable for the entire judgment.
The church stopped making its $3,562 monthly payments in November 2011, records show, and creditors sued Rush and entities linked to him in 2015.
Rush’s lawyer, Berton Ring, tried to get the judge to take only $300 a month from Rush’s congressional pay, citing the congressman’s financial troubles, the death of his wife last year and his having to maintain households in both Chicago and Washington due to his congressional duties. Ring also cited Rush’s age, 71, saying he “has to spend money on vitamins and healthy food products which cost more than unhealthy food products.”
The judge said the law required him to take 15 percent of Rush’s paycheck.
HT: Marathon Pundit