Congress to Skip Annual Raise Next Year

[dtotire]

Congress to Skip Annual Raise Next Year


By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 10, 2009

Filed at 9:09 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lawmakers on Tuesday denied themselves a pay raise next January but, with an eye toward a better economic and political climate, decided to retain their automatic cost-of-living raises for future years.

A blur of last-minute procedural maneuvering in the Senate late Tuesday produced a salary package for members of Congress that holds their annual pay at $174,000 until 2011. Earlier in the day, on a 52-45 vote, senators rejected a more politically painful proposal that would have forced lawmakers to stand up and be counted when they want to boost their salaries.

No senator dared to dump on that idea publicly, with the economy tanking, 12 million constituents unemployed and the 2010 elections looming. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., declared that he supports the premise behind Republican Sen. David Vitter's proposal to do away with automatic pay increases.

But Vitter's amendment, Reid explained, could have killed the underlying $410 billion omnibus spending bill because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has threatened to reject any changes to the massive spending measure. So Reid offered to do away with automatic raises in a separate bill.



http://www.nytimes.com/pages/aponline/national/index.html

[Skittles]

1. not good enough

we're taking pay cuts out here too, you lame bastards

[Aristus]

3. It's a start. That's something.

Why don't you go kick their asses, Skittles? The revenue from the tickets I'd sell to that show would put the whole country back in the black. B-) :+

[AndyA]

2. That's the very LEAST they could do.

Really, their automatic, mandatory salary increases need to be done away with. What bullshit. Where else do you get a guaranteed raise, not based on performance?

I think salary CUTS are in order for Congress. After all, they are a contributing factor to this mess we're in.