Question Fun
Are you okay with congress getting a $4700.00 per year pay raise in January?
Chamberlain December 27, 2008 05:36:34
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(Washington, D.C.) - The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today urged lawmakers to make their first order of business when they reconvene in the nation’s capitol in January to introduce legislation to freeze congressional salaries at current rates. All Members of Congress are slated to get an automatic pay raise in January, 2009 unless they vote to block it. Each rank and file member of Congress is poised to see another $4,700 in his or her paycheck over the next year, an increase of 2.8 percent over their current $169,300 annual salary.
“Members of Congress don’t deserve one additional dime of taxpayer money in 2009,” said CCAGW President Tom Schatz. “While thousands of Americans are facing layoffs and downsizing, Congress should be mortified to accept a raise. They failed to pass most of their appropriations bills, the deficit is on pace to reach an unprecedented $1 trillion, and the national debt stands at $10 trillion. In addition, this Congress has been ethically challenged, plagued with corruption allegations, convictions, and sex scandals.”
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) probably rues the day she so blithely promised that Democrats would ‘lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.’ Instead, there has been a relentless degradation of the ethics rules. While Congress has sat in judgment of everyone from oil company executives and financial services industry executives to domestic automaker CEOs, it has failed spectacularly to police itself.”
In a sad continuation of the unprincipled character of the 109th Congress, the 110th has also been riddled with examples of malfeasance. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) faces years in jail for his conviction on seven counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in improper gifts he received from 1999 to 2006. Alaska Rep. Don Young (R) reportedly has spent $1 million on defense attorneys related to a federal investigation into allegations of bribery. There are two investigations underway of House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) over alleged tax improprieties. Former Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) has been indicted and is awaiting trial on alleged bribery charges. The Senate Ethics Committee is looking at both Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) over sweetheart mortgage deals they may have received from Countrywide Financial. Rep. Vito Fosella (R-N.Y.) was convicted of drunk driving. And there have been a number of inappropriate sexual peccadillos surrounding Sens. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and David Vitter (R-La.), and Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.).
“If Congressional leaders believe that the taxpayers should gives pay raises to this rogue’s gallery of ineptitude and venality, they ought to step away from the spiked egg nog,” concluded Schatz.
The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.
“Members of Congress don’t deserve one additional dime of taxpayer money in 2009,” said CCAGW President Tom Schatz. “While thousands of Americans are facing layoffs and downsizing, Congress should be mortified to accept a raise. They failed to pass most of their appropriations bills, the deficit is on pace to reach an unprecedented $1 trillion, and the national debt stands at $10 trillion. In addition, this Congress has been ethically challenged, plagued with corruption allegations, convictions, and sex scandals.”
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) probably rues the day she so blithely promised that Democrats would ‘lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.’ Instead, there has been a relentless degradation of the ethics rules. While Congress has sat in judgment of everyone from oil company executives and financial services industry executives to domestic automaker CEOs, it has failed spectacularly to police itself.”
In a sad continuation of the unprincipled character of the 109th Congress, the 110th has also been riddled with examples of malfeasance. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) faces years in jail for his conviction on seven counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in improper gifts he received from 1999 to 2006. Alaska Rep. Don Young (R) reportedly has spent $1 million on defense attorneys related to a federal investigation into allegations of bribery. There are two investigations underway of House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) over alleged tax improprieties. Former Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) has been indicted and is awaiting trial on alleged bribery charges. The Senate Ethics Committee is looking at both Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) over sweetheart mortgage deals they may have received from Countrywide Financial. Rep. Vito Fosella (R-N.Y.) was convicted of drunk driving. And there have been a number of inappropriate sexual peccadillos surrounding Sens. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and David Vitter (R-La.), and Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.).
“If Congressional leaders believe that the taxpayers should gives pay raises to this rogue’s gallery of ineptitude and venality, they ought to step away from the spiked egg nog,” concluded Schatz.
The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.
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Top Comment
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No Way! They already make too much for what they do.
It's government, pork is all they know. Maybe it's time to have a BBQ and send as many of the bums packing as we can in 2 years.View thread
Undecided
No Way! They already make too much for what they do.
No Way! They already make too much for what they do.
Yes. They are terribly underpaid.
We can no longer say that the way congress behaves doesn't affect us, look at the current state of the economy. There is plenty of blame at the corporate level, but if you allow our capitalist system to function properly, those would be weeded out as companies fail. It is NOT the governments place to bail out every failing corporation, nor should it be. I am not defending CEO's but I have less disdain for them than our current and previous congress.
Obama is the biggest Ponzi ever perpetrated on the American Public he makes Madoff look like a Rookie!!!!!!! To some he is a Messiah to me he is just a LIAR.!!!
No Way! They already make too much for what they do.
No Way! They already make too much for what they do.