Of Course They Should Get A Raise!

Many companies are tightening their belts right now, implementing hiring freezes, pushing off pay raises, and even beginning to lay off workers. The housing crunch is on, the credit freeze is still frozen, and a catastrophic implosion of the American economy is only a moment away (if you listen to certain people). Naturally, then, Congress should get a raise:

The Worst. Congress. Ever. continues to impress.
The Hill reported:

A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.

Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries, and watchdog groups are not happy about it.

“As lawmakers make a big show of forcing auto executives to accept just $1 a year in salary, they are quietly raiding the vault for their own personal gain,” said Daniel O’Connell, chairman of The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), anon-partisan group.“This money would be much better spent helping the millions of seniors who are living below the poverty line and struggling to keep their heat on this winter.”

However, at 2.8 percent, the automatic raise that lawmakers receive is only half as large as the 2009 cost of living adjustment of Social Security recipients.

Still, Steve Ellis, vice president of the budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense, said Congress should have taken the rare step of freezing its pay, as lawmakers did in 2000.

Well, of course they should get a raise...! These people are unbelievable.

Just for fun, you should call your reps and see if they support their own pay raises. If so, ask them why they should get a raise when their constituents are hurting and when they are demanding pay cuts from the auto industry. If not, ask them what they're going to do about it. Feel free to post a comment with the responses you get. I have a feeling it'll be a lot of gasbaggery and very little substance.

But hey, it's Congress, right? Isn't that what they do?

There's my two cents.