I just sent Obama an e mail. I do appreciate the pay freeze he enacted at the highest level of his administration- that is a good start.
But I don't want the Congressional pay raise, the automated raise to slip by.
My suggestion to Obama is to publicly announce the automated raise. Publicly call for voluntary refusal of the raise & publish the list of congress members willing to give back the money.
2010 IS an election year. The list could be very handy for voters.
The automatic raise just quietly goes through in the beginning of the year, during the holidays. Unless congress itself decides to take an up or down vote on it, it is automatically approved. I would like that clause to be removed and or amended.
Tie it to minimum wage hikes, and overall financial health of the treasury.
Bad economy, no raises.
We are on the verge of a full blown depression, so these raises, over 2 million dollars are really inappropriate. Especially in the case of Pelosi, Cheney, & Justice Roberts, who can't even get a few lines of the swearing in done properly.
I can't let this go, because Congress already makes huge salaries along with deluxe health care, benefits & retirement programs.
If we the people don't make a fuss about it, there goes another $2 million down the drain. We really do have to tighten our belts & function differently.
ALL of us, government included.
As posted earlier-
Congress members in 2008 will receive salaries of $169,300, an increase of $4,100 over the salary they have had since January 2006.
QUICK MATH: ADDITIONAL PAY RAISES FOR PELOSI, CHENEY & JOHN ROBERTS, ETC = $82,700
$2,193,500.00 + $82,700= $2,276,200.00
As posted earlier-
Congress members in 2008 will receive salaries of $169,300, an increase of $4,100 over the salary they have had since January 2006.
QUICK MATH: 535 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
535 X 4100= $2,193,500.00 OVER 2 MILLION BUCKS.
That 2.5% increase is similar in other Federal positions as well:
• Associate justices of the Supreme Court, their pay go from $203,000 to $208,100.
• Chief Justice John Roberts, pay will rise to $217,400 from $212,100.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,salary goes from $212,100 last year to $217,400, the same as Chief Justice Roberts.
• The majority and minority leaders of the House and Senate and Senate president pro tempore Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., will get increases from $183,500 to $188,100.
• Dick Cheney, in his last year as vice president, will receive $221,100, up from $215,700.
• The President's salary $400,000 is unchanged.
• Associate justices of the Supreme Court, their pay go from $203,000 to $208,100.
• Chief Justice John Roberts, pay will rise to $217,400 from $212,100.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,salary goes from $212,100 last year to $217,400, the same as Chief Justice Roberts.
• The majority and minority leaders of the House and Senate and Senate president pro tempore Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., will get increases from $183,500 to $188,100.
• Dick Cheney, in his last year as vice president, will receive $221,100, up from $215,700.
• The President's salary $400,000 is unchanged.
QUICK MATH: ADDITIONAL PAY RAISES FOR PELOSI, CHENEY & JOHN ROBERTS, ETC = $82,700
$2,193,500.00 + $82,700= $2,276,200.00
$2.2 MILLION JUST FOR RAISES IN CONGRESS?
THE CONGRESS THAT HELPED BRING US TO FINANCIAL RUINS BY APPROVING WAR FUNDING, FAILING TO REGULATE HOUSING & BANKING MARKETS, AND THREW $700 BILLION TO THE WALL STREET WOLVES W NO ACCOUNTABILITY!
With the Federal minimum wage increase accomplished last year (first time in 10 YEARS), House Democratic leaders joined with their Republican counterparts to oppose a procedural vote to bring the COLA issue to the floor, leaving the way clear for their automatic raise.
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, a leading critic of the COLA process, said in an interview that he's not proposing that members of Congress never get a pay raise. But he said that, in a time of budget deficits when many people are undergoing economic hardships, "at least we ought to have an up-and-down vote on it. The whole process appears so secretive."
Tom Schantz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, said Congress should be "mortified" to accept a raise when it allowed the deficit to swell and the economy to swing so badly out of control.
"If congressional leaders believe that the taxpayers should give pay raises to this rogues' gallery of ineptitude and venality, they ought to step away from the spiked eggnog," Schantz said, urging an emergency vote against the raise.
With the Federal minimum wage increase accomplished last year (first time in 10 YEARS), House Democratic leaders joined with their Republican counterparts to oppose a procedural vote to bring the COLA issue to the floor, leaving the way clear for their automatic raise.
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, a leading critic of the COLA process, said in an interview that he's not proposing that members of Congress never get a pay raise. But he said that, in a time of budget deficits when many people are undergoing economic hardships, "at least we ought to have an up-and-down vote on it. The whole process appears so secretive."
Tom Schantz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, said Congress should be "mortified" to accept a raise when it allowed the deficit to swell and the economy to swing so badly out of control.
"If congressional leaders believe that the taxpayers should give pay raises to this rogues' gallery of ineptitude and venality, they ought to step away from the spiked eggnog," Schantz said, urging an emergency vote against the raise.
That is exactly what should happen- an emergency vote, stopping the raise. Or a public roll call for giving the raise back.
We can't proceed with business as usual. The notion of this glut of hefty pay raises is in one word, insane.
Ordinary citizens had to wait 10 YEARS for a small minimum wage hike ~ even then is is miniscule, compared to the actual cost of living.
