Posted on 01/04/2009 5:23:12 AM PST by MartinaMisc
UNEMPLOYMENT is at its highest level in 15 years. Housing prices won't stop falling. The stock market has suffered its most punishing collapse since 1931, and shareholders have lost $7 trillion in wealth. Millions of workers have lost their jobs; millions more are worried about losing theirs. IRAs and 401k accounts have been decimated, and companies are halting their contributions to retirement plans. Retail sales are dragging, the credit markets have seized up, and worse is expected in 2009. The government has gone to unprecedented lengths to improve the economy, yet the economy keeps getting worse. The federal budget deficit is headed for a trillion dollars, and the national debt is well over $10 trillion and climbing. The number of Americans saying the country is on the wrong track is at or near its all-time high; consumer confidence is at its all-time low.
So what do you do now?
Well, if you're a member of Congress, you give yourself a raise.
Beginning this week, US representatives and senators will be paid $174,000 a year. That represents an increase of $4,700 and the 10th time since 1998 that congressional pay has been given a boost.
As has become routine, this salary hike is taking place automatically - there were no hearings, no vote, no debate. No members of Congress stepped before the microphones to explain why their performance over the past year entitles them to a fatter paycheck. Or to make the case for helping themselves to more money at a time when so many Americans are out of work, the economy is in recession, and financial distress is spreading.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
...and no members of the MSM identify Congress as being ovewhelmingly Democrat.
Disgustin, and I get a 2% that doesn’t cover the inflation
That's 2% more than what I got. Hard times, all salaries frozen, got to pull together for the good of HP, yadda, yadda, yadda. Well, if anyone out there thinks that Mark Hurd's 2009 compensation will be the same as his 2008 compensation then I've got some beach front property in Nevada I'd like to talk to you about.
The law tying congressional salaries to automatic increases was passes when the GOP ran the show.
Congress, you give yourself a raise = To few kick backs from the bail out program?
TERM LIMITS
I wish I was in government. Come hell or high water you get your 3.5% raise EVERY year and in PA you pay almost nothing for your health insurance. We have had teacher strikes here because they were asked to pay $15 a month for their health care with little to nothing in the way of deductibles.
Ping for later
Every voter ought to be anxious to get to the polls in the future to vote in a batch of new congress people. This group created the financial mess, ignored the housing issue, dished out bailout money with no accountability and tons of pork, created automotive standards that caused troubles for that industry, are looking to put us farther in debt, and are ready to enact more spending and social programs. Don’t know about you but I’m fed up with the whole bunch of them.
So what?!
Every Congress has the opportunity to accept or reject that increase by a simple vote. The fact that the Democrats, who are in control, did not vote against it is nowhere mentioned in the article or anywhere else.
In fact, if you read the comments after the article, one idiot hopes that the "new" Congress will repeal the increase.
We are paying more for health
no hiring
no contractors without executive officer approval.
Neither is the fact that the Republicans didn't do so when they were running the show. Nor are they trying to do so now.
In fact, if you read the comments after the article, one idiot hopes that the "new" Congress will repeal the increase.
There is no new Congress. Hasn't been for decades.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.