Is if fair congress gets a pay raise?

[Tim4319]

How can they vote on a pay raise at this time, when cuts are being made everywhere else. If we have to sacrifice, they should have to sacrifice, regardless if they are government officials. How about giving that $3,100 raise to the troops? Maybe that is too much like right?!

<<snip>>
Matheson was the only one of 434 House members to speak out against the 1.9 percent COLA, which will raise members' salaries in January.

"Now is not the time for members of Congress to be voting themselves a pay raise. We need to be willing to make sacrifices," he said.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/28/AR2005062801144.html

[Vickers]

1. Dude, this is just a COLA raise....do you want them to STARVE?!?!?!?!?!?!?

:sarcasm:

[Mr.Green93]

10. You try getting by on 165.000 dollars

a year. And then you will know the sacrifices these faithful servants make.

[catnhatnh]

16. Starve???

their tiny little 1.9 cola works out to about $60 a week-equivalent to a $1.50 dollar an hour for a minimum wage worker...and these are the clowns who found there was no need to raise the minimum wage for the last 10 years....Go ahead and starve their bodies...they are already brain dead....

[Bluzmann57]

2. No

it certainly isn't fair. For one thing, very few of them do anything. And of course, there's the little matter of people having to take pay cuts in order to survive. Pay cuts being an alternative to no pay whatsoever.

[hobbit709]

3. My mother got

a whopping big $5/month COLA on her Social Security check. Then her Medicare payment went up $16/month.

[Tim4319]

4. That is crazy!

I'm sorry, but some people are just heartless!

[splat@14]

9. Good to send stuff like that to your reps, particularly if they voted

for the raise! May not matter to them but I like to rub that sort of stuff in their faces!

[Caution]

5. Frankly, no I dont think that small of a raise is unfair

Not all congresspeople are wealthy and they have to maintain two residences and some have children in college. What Congress needs to do is realize that this pay riase is not indicative of what the average American is seeing and that their policies should be more aggressively helping out the average family in America. Teir raise barely keep usp with inflation. If they had granted themselves a riase of more than 4% than yeh it would be something to bitch about.

[hobbit709]

7. I'm crying

for them. Most Americans are raising families, sending their kids to college, etc. on a lot less than 130+K a year.

[Tim4319]

8. I'm sorry, I do not buy that.

This is what I found out. I am still having problems seeing how they cannot survive off of a minimum $158,100 a year. But, benefits are getting cut. Troops still do not have bulletproof vests.


Congress: Leadership Members' Salary (108th Congress)
Leaders of the House and Senate are paid a higher salary than rank-and-file members.

Senate Leadership
Majority Leader - $175,600
Minority Leader - $175,600

House Leadership
Speaker of the House - $203,000
Majority Leader - $175,600
Minority Leader - $175,600

The current salary for rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $158,100 per year.

[atreides1]

15. Good Points

But now you would allow people who knew what the requirements of elected office would be a free pass.

Every single one of these men and women knew that they would have to maintain two residences, they knew that this office wasn't about the money it was to serve those that elected them.

As for having children in college, other people in this country have children in college also, but no one is giving them $3100.00 extra dollars a year.

If Congress hasn't realized by now that this raise isn't indicative of what the average American receives, then they have got to be the
stupidest bunch of idiots this side of an insane asylum.

Most of them are geographical bachelors, in other words their families live at home, not in D.C.

I have solution, the states should buy houses in and around the D.C.
area for those in Congress who are there with their families. This way the residences belong to the state and when soemone is defeated
the winner gets to move in, and the loser gets to go home.

If the member does not want to reside in the home, then all expenses
come out of their pockets. Members who don't bring their families with them can reside in a Congressional barracks, where their food and board would be paid for by the states that they represent.

As for sending kids to college, since that is an expense that other families have to deal with, without the expectation of extra money in their paychecks, members of Congress should not expect extra money either.

By the way a residence back in a home state does not have to be a house, it could be an apartment, so the maintaining two residences
excuse is subject to abuse by members of Congress. Prick Santorum from Pennsylvania would be an excellent example of abuse, his residence back in PA is a 2 bedroom house that we are to believe is
large enough for his family of eight, and that's not counting his two relatives that live there now.

So if they have to maintain a residence in their home state, then it should be a residence that can accommodate the size of their families.

At a time of war there is no justification for them to get a raise of anykind, while at the same time cutting the budget for programs that help millions of Americans, not just the 535 in Congress.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

25. If you want to use that rationale,

You could say everyone took their jobs knowing what the conditions would be, including troops and people making minimum wage.

Instead of crying about $3000/year, why not get both done and repeal the upper class tax cuts?

[Gormy Cuss]

17. True, it's just a COLA

Also true that not all are wealthy and that the big salary doesn't go as far in DC as it would in other parts of the country. The issue is, they get a guaranteed increase and guaranteed employment for a specific period while most Americans have neither. When the economy is roaring along it's one thing. When our country is running record deficits, it'd be a nice touch for Congress to defer their COLA for a year.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

6. It's totally fair, but minimum wage should go up too.

You get what you pay for, and that goes for our representatives too. If you don't pay them, only the truly wealthy will ever actually be able to afford running for office. Instead of having the best people running our government, we just have the best that can afford to run for office, have two homes, pay travel costs, etc.

That said, it's Republican hypocrisy to acknowledge they need a raise, but the working class doesn't. Hike minimum wage and hike the troops' salary too.

[Mairead]

11. "If you don't pay them, only the truly wealthy will run for office"

Please, take a look at their wealth now. Someone like Dennis Kucinich is a real anomaly: most members of the House and Senate are wealthy, and become wealthier during their terms.

The idea that we need to pay them at a rate far above the median for doing the same job we all do every day seems nonsensical to me. Deciding how to spend billions of dollars of tax money is less difficult than deciding how to spend thousands or hundreds ...or tens!... of dollars of wage income.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

14. "For the same job we all do every day"?

Are you totally fucking clueless? What is it that you think they do all day? Sit around and drink coffee?

Do yourself a favor. Take a day off from your job, and walk around your state Capitol's office building and watch the elected officials. They do far and away more than what the vast majority of Americans do. It's like being a CEO on speed for an upper-middle class salary. Comparing it to corporate America, it's a FAR underpaid job.

[Mairead]

19. Yes, for the same job we all do

And I'll thank you to moderate your language. You might not be old enough yet to be out on your own, living on a budget, but most people here are and do exactly what the guys in Congress do: decide how to spend the money. They have staff members to do the heavy lifting.

It's not rocket science.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

20. You clearly have exactly zero understanding of the process.

I don't even know where to begin. You really need to take a course.

And I don't care about my language. When you make comments on a political board that show you have absolutely no understanding of politics, you get what you deserve.

[Mairead]

31. Listen, kid, I've been doing this since before you were born

And quite possibly since before your parents were born. So don't try to tell me I've no understanding, okay. Or do you want to do your posturing at Zinn, too?

"Democracy rests on the idea that, except for technical details for which experts may be useful, the important decisions of society are within the capability of ordinary citizens"

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

33. How old do you think I am?

Seriously, what kind of assumptions are you making here? What exactly do you know about me? Oh, that's right - nothing. :rofl:

And what exactly have you been "doing since before I was born"? Watching Meet the Press in your living room? Give me a break. Don't even try to BS your way out of this. You haven't the foggiest idea what the average day in the life of a Congressman is like.

[Deja Q]

22. Yeah. We get what we pay for...

Corporate bribery...

People buy Microsoft products and bitch and gripe about stability and security.

Meanwhile, Linux is free (or costs less), requires a little involvement on the part of the user (not much), and you've got something more stable and FAR MORE secure in return.

If people want mindless, they shouldn't be owning a computer.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

24. If you think anyone's going to do the job for nothing,

outside of an uber-wealthy, already corporately owned candidate, you're only kidding yourself.

[jojo54]

12. No. It's not fair.

The average congressperson makes about $158K per year (according to http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa031200a.htm).

That's a lot more than me or you (I would guess) make in 2 years. It's especially not fair because most companies no longer give workers cost-of-living increases anymore. When Congress starts taking care of the famine, forests and workers' rights in this country, then maybe they'll deserve a raise.

[whistle]

13. $3,100 times 534 congress men equals $1,655,400.00 per year

....2.5 million active service men and women times $3,100 equals $7.75 billion. Big difference, but certainly the money would be better spent if channeled over to our service personnel. Congress should be forced to take a 20% pay-cut.

[moof]

18. They are the people the rest of us are slaves

Does that help?

Cripes, sometimes a thread like this makes the disappointment meter explode.
Most slaves are so out of touch with reality.

Tim4319's points about helping out the others less fortunate are correct
for anyone that has some morals and ethics, but the people running things are not working under any such drawback.

Also name another job where the pension and healthcare
(neither of which were mentioned here and either of which are worth more than most slaves in America get paid per year)
and many many other benefits are awarded so quickly after being appointed to the "job".

They deserve it, most of them deserve a court date at the Hague followed by life in prison without parole.

[Deja Q]

21. Filthy traitorous pigs. not that I'm surprised, that is their job:

Give themselves raises and post-term benefits.

They are out of touch; have been for decades.

I give no cred or respect to any of them, apart from - perhaps - those who voted NAY. And, wow, only ONE person did.

[kentuck]

23. We need a complete overhaul...

Congress is not a place to "make money". It is public service. If they cannot perform public service on $150.000 per year, plus benefits, the it might be time to go home and get in the private sector and get the hell out of the public sector. This applies to Democrats and Republicans.

[Hubert Flottz]

26. No they should take a pay cut like everyone else is!

Pay their own doctor bills, lose their pensions and we should export their jobs to India!

[Tim4319]

28. Man! that is exactly what I am talking about!

You hit the nail right on the head.

[maxrandb]

27. If Howard Dean is Smart, He Will Use this Against Repukes in 2006

It would take some cohesiveness and backbone on the part of the Dem members of the House and Senate, but what I would do is during special order speeches, every Dem member of Congress would line up with a $3100 personal check.

They would state that the current leadership in Congress has not been doing the people's business, and that giving them a raise would be like giving the Captain of the Titanic a Celestial Navigation Award.

Then one by one they would walk up and drop the checks in a basket and donate all the money to the Disabled American Veterans Association.

[rman]

29. Is it fair they get to vote on their own pay raise?

I never get to vote on my pay raise.

[Tim4319]

30. So, so true!

[bunkerbuster1]

32. That's not really the issue, though.

And I quote from the story:

"the House blocked a bid by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to force an up-or-down vote on the pay raise."

I don't have a problem with them allowing for a COLA. (yes, yes, I think it should be applied to the minimum wage, if we had Dems with balls this would be a huge issue, yadda yadda. never mind that for the moment.)

Point everyone's missing here is, Congress didn't even have the courage to allow an up or down vote on it. They weren't willing to go on record as supporting their pay increase.

Now, that's lame.

[Tim4319]

34. Correct!

Them not willing to go on record does make it worse. Like they are trying to hide something.