House Lawmakers Accept $3,300 Pay Hike

[cal04]

Despite record low approval ratings, House lawmakers Tuesday embraced a $3,300 pay raise that will increase their salaries to $168,500. The 2 percent cost-of-living raise would be the seventh straight for members of the House and Senate. Lawmakers easily squelched a bid by Rep. Jim Matheson (news, bio, voting record), D-Utah, to get a direct vote to block the COLA, which is automatically awarded unless lawmakers vote to block it.

In the early days of GOP control of Congress, lawmakers routinely denied themselves the annual COLA. Last year, the Senate voted 92-6 to deny the raise but quietly surrendered the position in House-Senate talks. As part of an ethics reform bill in 1989, Congress gave up their ability to accept pay for speeches and made annual cost-of-living pay increases automatic unless the lawmakers voted otherwise.

The pay issue has been linked to the annual Transportation and Treasury Departmen tspending bill because that measure stipulates that civil servants get raises of 2.7 percent, the same as military personnel will receive. Under a complicated formula, the increase translates to 2 percent for members of Congress. Like last year, Matheson led a quixotic drive to block the raise. He was the only member to speak on the topic.

"I do not think that it is appropriate to let this bill go through without an up or down vote on whether or not Congress should have an increase in its own pay," Matheson said. But by a 249-167 vote, the House rejected Matheson's procedural attempt to get a direct vote on the pay raise. The pay raise would also apply to the vice president — who is president of the Senate — congressional leaders and Supreme Court justices.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060613/ap_on_go_co/congress_pay_raise_1

[MichiganVote]

1. Bastards

[Captain Hilts]

2. And what of the minimum wage? How many raises have they had since...

it was raised?

[SoCalDem]

3. How decent of them...to "accept" it..

I would hate to think it would go to "waste"..What wonderful people we have working for us :puke:

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. Seriously

[catmandu57]

4. 3,300

must be nice, hell if I even had half as much, I could get new glasses and my dentures repaired, fuck.

[SoCalDem]

6. new glasses?? Who needs em..There's nothing to see out here

move along :evilgrin:

[arcane1]

15. 7 years on the job and my pay hasn't increased THAT much

I'm just glad these poor bastards managed to avoid starvation :sarcasm:

[4_TN_TITANS]

19. Right with you....

I'm lucky if I see an increase of $150 / yr. and in five years I haven't seen anything close to $3,300.

[n2doc]

5. This is going against the grain but I think they should get more

but ONLY if there were strong restrictions on outside income for close family members and a lifetime ban on lobbying. It is expensive to live in DC and travel, and as it stands either one has to be rich or crooked to afford the lifestyle demanded of our reps. Of course, most of them are rich AND crooked!

[Synnical]

7. And they are about to reject a minimum wage hike!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

In a surprise move, a House panel voted Tuesday for a hike in the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25, which would be the first increase in a decade. But the move by the Appropriations Committee, as an amendment to a bill funding health and education programs, is likely to be stripped out when the measure comes to the House floor. That's because the panel does not officially have jurisdiction over the issue, and Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, said will strike the provision on the floor.

McKeon said he has no plans to move a stand-alone bill raising the minimum wage. Seven Appropriations panel Republicans voted with Democrats to approve the wage hike, including John Sweeney and Jim Walsh of New York, Ray LaHood of Illinois, Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri and Don Sherwood of Pennsylvania.

``Now we'll see what they do with it.'' said Minority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who sponsored the wage hike, based on a bill by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., to raise the wage in three increments over two years. ``We're going to make a very pointed issue out of this.'' When adjusted for inflation, the $5.15 per hour wage is the lowest it has been for 50 years, according to a study by Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal-leaning think tank.

``The minimum wage is lower than it has been at any time since 1956,'' said Miller, the top Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. ``Congress' refusal to raise the minimum wage shows an utter disrespect for millions of Americans who work hard every day and still struggle to meet even the most basic needs.''

[smokey nj]

8. Pay raises for elected officials should be a ballot referendum......

after all, they are OUR employees.

[Daphne08]

12. They've completely forgotten that they're OUR employees!

:grr: This is the height of arrogance and hubris when so many people in America are hurting financially.

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Gee. How nice of them.

:puke:

[PWRinNY]

11. Aren't we their employers?

Shouldn't WE get to vote on whether or not they deserve raises?
Put it on the ballot. "Do you want some more of your tax dollars going to the incumbent's pay raise?"
Now THAT'S a way to get people out to vote.

[The2ndWheel]

20. Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Haha!

Can't start a day better than with a good laugh. I thought watching The Colbert Report was fun. We're the employers. Oh man, my side...

[Double T]

13. The bastards are doing such a great job of destroying the country......

they deserve a raise. And they don't want to hear any complaints from the minimum wage earners?? Another good example for the need for Term Limits and the evacuation of the K Street Mob.

[fed-up]

14. that will buy them about 1,000 gallons of gas-rest of us are screwed n/t

[sproutster]

16. MUST BE NICE - the rest of us have salary freezes for years.

[roguevalley]

17. I'm sure the gulf coast people must be proud to hear this.

[Vinca]

18. Disgusting. Their raises should be tied to the minimum wage.

When the peasants get a raise, the Congress gets a raise. When the peasants starve, the Congress eats chuck instead of tenderloin.