Congress: Raise for US, None for YOU!

Just yesterday, for the eight year in a row, Congress gave themselves another big raise while not adjusting the minimum wage by one penny. It must certainly be hard to make ends meet as a member of Congress, with a paltry salary of just over $160,000 a year, plus an expense account that covers all your travel and lobbyists just lining up to take you out for lunch and dinner. And with health insurance and pension plans that rival those of corporate CEOs, you can just imagine how your member of Congress must stay up at night, worrying whether they'll have to choose between food or medicine when they retire.

In fact, since 1980, the value of Congressional salaries has gone up over 23% while the value of the minimum wage has gone down 26%. Congress has even made their annual raise automatic: a 1989 law gives every member of Congress a cost of living raise unless Congress intervenes. American workers who are struggling to survive on the minimum wage don't get any guaranteed raises. Must be nice to be able to give yourself a raise with someone else's money...

The 2 BIGGEST hypocrites are Senators Kit Bond of Missouri and Richard Lugar of Indiana. When the Senate passed a sham resolution** earlier this year, proposing to skip the Congressional pay increase for 2006, these two were among the six dumb-dumbs who voted against it. But then, when the issue of the minimum wage came up for a vote, these two Republicans voted with their party's majority to defeat the proposed minimum wage increase. So even though all of Congress used political tricks and procedures to make sure they got their raise without giving one to working Americans, these were the only two to actually vote that way.

Think that would go over very well with their constituents when they're up for re-election? Don't think so. Think any Democrat will actually raise it as a campaign issue? Again, don't think so. Sad.

**The resolution was a sham because there was no corresponding resolution in the House. Senators knew they could vote for this resolution, diffuse the issue of pay increases during their next election, and still get the raise because the provision would not be passed by the House.