Congress Authorizes Itself a Pay Raise

We have an economy in recession, unemployment growing, businesses shutting their doors, the bail-out blues, and Congress gives themselves a $4700 a year raise. After taking the moral high ground with the Big Three about flying in on private jets, this takes a lot of nerve.

From the Hill.com,

The Hill.com-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.” read more...

Really what can you say? They are the pinnacle of hypocrisy and any credibility they may have gained by opposing the auto bailout is lost.

Once upon a time it was considered an honor to be a lawmaker, here in the United States. That time has long past and now they are nothing more than career self-gratifiers. It's not hard to imagine why Congressional approval ratings are so dreary.


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