Raise for Congress”Now is not the time for members of Congress to be voting themselves a pay raise. Let us send a signal to the American people that we recognize their struggle in America’s economy.” – Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah.
Too bad Congressman Matheson is the only House member with the decency to speak out against the cost-of-living raise. He failed in his effort last week to keep Congress from seeking a pay hike for the sixth straight year. This raise will be about $4,000, boosting House salaries to $162,000. Congress in 1989 made annual cost-of-living pay increases automatic unless members voted to turn them down. For most of the 1990s they did. Since 1998, they skipped just one year, raising their incomes by more than $25,000. During this same period, unemployment for the rest of America has risen; pay raises, if granted, have been on the skimpy side, and many workers have experienced wage freezes or pay cuts.
Congress must figure since they have run up the deficit this much, what difference does another $4,000 per member make. The House included this year’s raises in a nearly $90 billion bill to keep the transportation and treasury departments running. There is still an outside chance – although a long shot -that the Senate will find the decency to at least make the symbolic gesture of turning down a pay raise.
Critics of Congress complain that these elite hold the only jobs in which they can reward themselves financially without impunity or without any consideration for job performance or the economy. But there remains a remedy. It’s called the voting booth.