Posted on 12/20/2008 9:07:27 PM PST by redhotright
One of the debates going on right now in the world of politics has to do with raises. You know, those pesky little pay increases that everyone wants every so often to keep themselves motivated to do their jobs.
Take me, for example. I work. And once a year, my efforts are evaluated, and if management comes to the conclusion that my activities merit an increase, then I get a raise. Alternatively, if they do not think I'm doing a good job, then I get no pay increase.
The current political firestorm has to do with the raise that Congress granted to themselves. A $4,700 per year raise, to be exact. In case you haven't heard about this yet, here are some excellent articles that talk about it:
Pigs at the Trough by Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs.
Compensation Hypocrisy by Pejman Yousefzadeh of RedState.
Congressional Pay Raises by Buffoon of Democrat=Socialist.
With economy in shambles, Congress gets a raise by Jordy Yager of The Hill
Raise Some Hell by IBD Editorials
While reading through these articles a thought occurred to me: I get evaluated to determine if I get a raise, so why wouldn't Congress get an evaluation to determine if they should get a raise? Instead of Congress voting in their own raises, force Congress to go through some sort of process where they get a performance review, and tie a raise to how well they do in the review.
The more I thought about this, the more sense it made. And while I was thinking these things over, I ran across this article: Congressional Performance: Approval of Congress Drops to Single Digits Again.
This is perfect. There are already polls in place that ask people to evaluate Congress' performance. And, technically, "We the People" are supposed to be managing our Congressmen (a fact that most Senators and Representatives seem to forget the minute that they get elected). We could use these surveys to get a pulse of how well Congress is doing, then link pay updates to their performance.
I was thinking something along these lines: if Congress gets an approval rating of 70% or more, then they get a cost-of-living pay increase. If the approval rating is between 50% and 70%, then Congress gets no change to their pay. If the approval rating is below 50%, then the pay for Congressmen is decreased by 5%.
Maybe this will finally motivate Congress to start doing our bidding.
Oh, and by the way, Sarah Palin (Alaska's Republican governor) turned down a proposed salary increase even though she justly deserved the raise. Now there's true leadership.
When pigs fly my friend, when pigs fly.
The salary these fools draw is nothing compared to the benefits and ‘other’ compensation they earn. The benefits, and ‘other’ compensation is what their retirement is based on.
Most of these fools take home more when they retire, than they do while they serve....well, minus all the graft they get while in office.
Good luck with the protest and I will most likely see you in the first re-education course that will be offered in the coming months.
Remember, you have to tell them you were wrong, and that all your thoughts now are how to serve the nation better.
Base congressional pay on the national economy.
Pass a resolution ( or even an amendment ) to base their pay on the national median income, multiplied by a certain factor for representatives, slightly higher for the senate.
If the economy is healthy, congressional pay is high, otherwise, they start living on the “dollar meal” at mickey D.
then they should all work for free.
Those greedy SOBs. At a time like this they urinate in our faces. Time draws near for pitchforks and torches.
They could all be CEO’s in big companies making millions and also get millions in bonus’. What do they make? 180K. That is not much considering. My problem with them is that they are not doing the job they promised.
I was thinking something along these lines: if Congress gets an approval rating of 70% or more, then they get a cost-of-living pay increase. If the approval rating is between 50% and 70%, then Congress gets no change to their pay. If the approval rating is below 50%, then the pay for Congressmen is decreased by 5%.
And if it drops to an abysmal 9%...
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