Congress gives self a raise despite crisis

The Arizona Republic ^ | Nov. 10, 2001 | Gary St. Lawrence

[hsmomx3]

Found this over the weekend in the AZ Republic newspaper.

[lilylangtree]

This is outrageous. How do we fire Congress? No wonder someone sent anthrax to Congress. Unfortunately, the virus didn't get the guilty person--the Congressman/woman that needed to receive it. Congress receives so many benefits and perks above and beyond their pay. Where's "The Distinguished Gentleman, Part II?"

[fod]

disgusting, I posted something recently about this, and it garnered very little attention...

[tellw]

Congressional pay has gone up 4.96% compounded annual growth since 1975. Is that too much? That doesn't sound very far off from inflation. That said, I think it should be generally illegal for members of Congress so send their children to private schools.

[paul51]

This is outrageous. Unfortunately, it's also a story as old as the hills. First order of business for every member of congress is lining the pockets and taking care of each other. These pigs have no shame and unfortunately, the majority of voters keep going along. Lock the doors of the capital and send them all home for six months a year and reduce the salaries proportionately.

The justification of the increases is always that we won't be able to attract quality people otherwise. This doesn't wash when candidates are willing to spend millions of dollars of their own money to get the office. It's the biggest scam going.

[fod]

Government
Source: AP
Posted on 11/2/01 9:18 AM Pacific by fod

House Approves $32.8B Spending Bill

AP Headlines

By Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The House approved a $32.8 billion measure on Wednesday that finances the Treasury Department and other agencies and includes big increases for the Internal Revenue Service.

The measure, approved by 339-85, needs only Senate approval before it can move to the White House for President Bush's expected signature.

The bill, for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, would provide $2 billion more than last year and $400 million more than Bush requested. Many of this year's spending bills are receiving extra money under a budget deal Bush and Congress worked out last month.

The IRS would get $9.4 billion, compared with $8.9 billion last year, with extra money for tax law enforcement and to modernize equipment. Other increases would go to the Customs Service and several drug law enforcement programs.

The measure also would continue existing law that forbids federal employees' health insurance from covering abortion, but also requires most of their health plans provide coverage for many prescription contraceptives.

Federal civilian employees would get pay raises of 4.6 percent.

The measure also opens the door for members of Congress to get $4,900 pay raises next year to $150,000. Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., has promised to try blocking the increase sometime before Congress adjourns this year. His effort is considered a long shot.

---

posted 11/2/01, two posters picked up on it

back to sleep....

[biblewonk]

I thought they made way more than 156K and yes my pay has increased more than 48 percent in the last decade.

[monkeywrench]

I had the same thought, that Ron Paul probably voted 'no'. This is what gets me, though, "Virginia Democrat James Moran said funding in the bill "will enable us to be better prepared to counter this new terrorist threat. Security and the need to preserve the ability of this institution to continue to function have been our paramount concern." Strangely enough, though, the details of the bill mention absolutely nothing about terrorism or national security. The bill's text dictates only how much more the representatives voted to pay themselves this year. Are we to believe that Moran and his colleagues are going to use their salaries to beef up their personal supply of anti-terrorism munitions" Someone, here, said that they'd soon justify everything they vote on using the "war on terrorism".

[Boonie Rat]

Congressional pay has gone up 4.96% compounded annual growth since 1975. Is that too much?

It may not be unless you consider that they make more than 95% of their constituency. Then it does look like too much, way too much. Get a rope, I'll find a tall tree!

Boonie Rat

MACV SOCOM, PhuBai/Hue '65-'66

[John H K]

I think Congressional pay raises are GREAT.

I'm completely, totally, dead serious. I think whining about Congressional pay raises is an infantile waste of time and a diversion from political issues that actually matter, and I would have no problem if the House and Senate both quadrupled their salaries tomorrow.

1) The more money and perks Congressmen get legally, the less likely they are to be corrupt.

The best recipe for bribery and political corruption is an underpaid person in a position of enormous power. Any time there's a mismatch between pay and power, corruption inevitably follows. One reason that there hasn't been a pro sports scandal involving the deliberate throwing of games since the Chicago Black Sox in 1919 is because active players are paid so well they have little motivation to jeopardize that for money. All the scandals involving game-throwing or point shaving since then involve college players, largely in basketball, because individual college players have GREAT power to control the outcome of games that many thousands of people care deeply about, yet they are unpaid other than their scholarships. If a gambler offered 1 million bucks to Kobe Bryant or Shaq to throw an NBA championship game, he'd be laughed out the door. Offer $25,000 to a college student to toss a Division I game, and you may get somewhere, if you've picked the right player.

Congressmen have ENORMOUS power..particularly committee chairs..over sectors of the economy worth tens of billions of dollars, and they can make or break Fortune 500 companies with legislation. The less pay and fewer legal perks Congressmen have, the more tempted they will be to be influenced by perks or outright bribes.

2) It's a trivial amount of money.

I really shouldn't have to point this out but people can be amazingly stupid about the US budget (and surveys have proved this...people have really crazy ideas about the budget, like thinking 25% or even more of it goes to foreign aid...foreign aid is a microscopic fraction of the US budget) and I think a lot of people think what congressmen are paid actually has some sort of measurable impact on the budget. It doesn't. It's chicken scratch.

3) Their current pay is, as it is, comically low.

People get OFFENDED by a group of 535 people out of a pppulation of over 250 million people, who govern the most powerful nation on earth, making a couple hundred thou a year? Please. Mediocre doctors and lawyers everywhere make more.

People need to get over the fact that Congress has the unique ability (actually, more of a burden) that it sets its own salary. SOMEONE has to.

Don't join the mindless knee-jerk outrage bandwagon.

THINK LOGICALLY

[John H K]

It may not be unless you consider that they make more than 95% of their constituency. Then it does look like too much, way too much. Get a rope, I'll find a tall tree!

There were some interesting experiments this century with political systems largely concerned with making sure people all made equal amounts of money...I'd say that it sounds like you may want to try that again, but it seems clear from your sig that you've previously risked your life fighting AGAINST such political experiments, thus I'm a bit confused.

[Clandestine]

Not to mention they have a 3 day work week to allow for the west coast members travel time!

[Mark]

I generally agree, BUT then I start thinking of Maxine Waters, Babs Boxer, AND Hillary Klinton and I get upset again.

[JMK]

How can a pay raise take effect January 1, 2002? The little-publicized 27th Amendment states that a pay raise can't become effective until after an intervening election; so until the next congress is sworn in, they shouldn't be getting so much as an extra dime!

[mlocher]

i would pay ten times the amount they are getting today if they would all go home for a couple of years and stop devising ways to spend my hard earned money.

[nicmarlo]

Did you know that members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Oct. 26 to give themselves another round of raises? This time, our illustrious elected officials - by a vote of 374 for and 52 against - decided to increase their salaries by $12,105

That's real nice. I've never received that much of a raise in my entire life. Guess I'm not as spesssshal.