What does Congress do in a recession?
Posted on December 19, 2008
Why, give themselves a pay raise, of course!
A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.
Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries, and watchdog groups are not happy about it.
“As lawmakers make a big show of forcing auto executives to accept just $1 a year in salary, they are quietly raiding the vault for their own personal gain,” said Daniel O’Connell, chairman of The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a non-partisan group. “This money would be much better spent helping the millions of seniors who are living below the poverty line and struggling to keep their heat on this winter.”
However, at 2.8 percent, the automatic raise that lawmakers receive is only half as large as the 2009 cost of living adjustment of Social Security recipients.
Still, Steve Ellis, vice president of the budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense, said Congress should have taken the rare step of freezing its pay, as lawmakers did in 2000.
“Look at the way the economy is and how most people aren’t counting on a holiday bonus or a pay raise — they’re just happy to have gainful employment,” said Ellis. “But you have the lawmakers who are set up and ready to get their next installment of a pay raise and go happily along their way.”
… In the beginning days of 1789, Congress was paid only $6 a day, which would be about $75 daily by modern standards. But by 1965 members were receiving $30,000 a year, which is the modern equivalent of about $195,000.
Currently the average lawmaker makes $169,300 a year, with leadership making slightly more. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) makes $217,400, while the minority and majority leaders in the House and Senate make $188,100.
Yeah, Congress is really working for the people, aren’t they?
Hat Tip: Right Wing News
Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog.
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2 Responses to “What does Congress do in a recession?”
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My home state (Texas) is sometimes ridiculed for only having a part-time legislature.
Apparently, the founding fathers of Texas couldn’t fathom the need for grown men to be employed full-time doing nothing but making rules for the rest of us.
I often feel they were on the right rack, and sometimes regret they didn’t follow the thought to its’ logical conclusion.
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We were quite foolish to allow the growth of a professional political class. Most of these bums are so rich that their salaries are just icing on the cake. How many of them have children in business raking in millions from their Congressparent’s connections? Certainly almost every Senator. Look at people like Biden and Obama. Never held a real job in their lives. Lifelong politicals who never had any other ambition except gain more power and steal more money.
Term Limits, Citizen Legislators. We might still save ourselves.