Congressional Pay Theft

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By Robert Bluey

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Full article Townhall.com

Excerpts:

Members of Congress return to Washington this week $4,100 richer. During their three-week vacation, the annual cost-of-living adjustment kicked in, bringing the salary of a congressman to $169,300.

At a time when partisan bickering has dragged congressional approval ratings to just 25 percent, Democrats and Republican can agree on one thing: a pay raise for poor performance.

Any American workers who had such dismal reviews would be fired. But in the case of lawmakers in Washington, it’s business as usual.

Support for the pay raise was among the most bipartisan issues Congress grappled with last year.

An attempt to block the automatic cost-of-living adjustment was defeated in June on a 244-to-181 vote; 99 Republicans joined 145 Democrats to back the 2.5 percent raise.

Senators Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) refer to each other as “brother.” They reward each other hansomely when getting defense earmarks/pork projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

I'll work to get you yours-you work to get me mine, seems to be the MO of these two long, long serving senators

Stevens, the longest-serving Senate Republican, obtained $194 million in earmarks, for his home district, while Inouye got $203.6 million, according to a watchdog organization Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS), which compiles such statistics.

The two senators have given thousands of dollars in political contributions to each other. They seemed to have outdone past cooperative efforts, looking out for each other in the final 2008 defense appropriations bill, even though they are from opposing parties.

There is very little of this kind of cooperation when it comes to confronting the most serious problems faced by the U.S.

As congress receives its lowest approval rating since polling began, it is also pushing for a $4400 pay raise for itself.

This would increase their salary to nearly $170,000 about 4 times more than per capita income.

Congress in its infinite generosity to itself, set it up about twenty years ago so that what has to happen each year is that an automatic COLA-Cost of Living Increase kicks in unless they vote to block it.

Last year, they promised that no raise would come until the minimum wage was passed.

You can imagine how determined they were to get that through. It is the lone piece of major legislation it has passed this year.

The vote passed the House 244-181.

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When did Congressional Pay Theft originate?

In 1989 Congress showed what a magnanimous bunch it is.

It voted itself an automatic, yearly, raise in pay, unless there is a specific vote (by its own members) to cancel that raise.

Fat Chance!

So this past Wednesday, June 14th, each member got a $3300 increase, to take effect next session, up to a mere $168,500.

Surprise!! They couldn’t get enough votes to cancel that raise.

Congressional pay is nearly five times higher than per capita income.**

In addition to the hefty pay, pensions for congressmen are generous beyond practically anything in the nation.

Many Americans do not get automatic pay raises, so, we simply must tighten our belts in lean years.

Congress, despite a debt of $8.4 trillion dollars, just merrily takes care of itself now and with future treasure. A fine example for the rest of us.

The Founding Fathers originally designed the system for congressmen to serve, as a sacrifice, for a short period, with little pay, then return home to make a better living.

Today, most congressmen fight to make it a lifetime job with obscene pay and a fantastic retirement.

**U.S. Per Capita Income in 2005 was $34,586.

Taxpayers should be aware of Congressman Jeff Flake of Arizona, who has been working very hard at controlling all congressional spending by highlighting the practice of earmarking.

Earmarking will be covered soon in a separate article.