Congress gave itself a cost of living increase raise in 2009, but seniors get nothing

[Mari333]

Congressional members receive a 2009 salary increase
Posted by legistorm on Thursday, January 08, 2009
Members of Congress will receive an annual salary increase of $4,700 for 2009 as a result of an automatic cost of living allowance that took effect on January 1, raising the default annual member salary to $174,000. A handful of the House and Senate's top leaders make even more than that.












http://www.legistorm.com/blog/congressional-members-receive-a-2009-salary-increase.html


add to that the perks and lobbying money that Congress gets . the millions and millions they get from their corporate buddies.

but the seniors out there living paycheck to paycheck, many of them, get nothing .

and how do they justify this??

oh and here are their salaries: (minus the lobbyist perks)
http://www.legistorm.com/member_of_congress_salaries.html

[sinkingfeeling]

1. How many working people have gotten a raise every year since 1975? And seniors are living

'Social Security check to Social Secuirty check'.

[Mari333]

2. same thing. Congress kept minimum wage at horrific levels for a long time

whilst continuing to accomodate themselves...
in other words, the people of the USA come last. they, and their corporate friends, come first.

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. K&R

x(

[Autumn]

4. Says a lot, doesn't it n/t

[Mari333]

5. I watch those well fed bastards on C Span

with their Armani suits and silk ties, Bloated faces and high blood pressure, puffy eyed Gout stricken scumbags puffing their lies half heartedly spewing their talking points they receive from their corporate masters.
makes me vomit.

[Autumn]

7. I quit watching them, I can't stand

to see their fucking faces and hear their voices. I find it easier to read what the bastards say, and a lot less stressful. But you sure described them to a tee.:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[kentuck]

6. $174,000 per year is a career - not public service..

And is a big problem for a so-called democracy.

[cutlassmama]

8. Congress persons eat steak while seniors/disabled eat cat food.

[SammyWinstonJack]

9. Would make a great bumpersticker.

:thumbsup:

[dysfunctional press]

10. seniors get no cola in 2010- this article is about congress' cola in 2009.

apples/oranges.

if congress gets a cola raise NEXT year, and ss recipients don't- THEN there are questions to answer.

[WePurrsevere]

11. Umm.. FWIW that's from January of this year

not recent and it was given the same time as those of us on Soc Security retirement or disability (as I am) got our large COLA increase. So, although I think the way the COLA is calculated is bullpucky it's not like they got and we didn't that time.

OTOH if they give themselves an increase in January of 2010 and we get squat I'll be livid.

[Lasher]

12. Members of Congress won’t get an automatic pay raise in 2010.

They voted in March, as part of an omnibus appropriations bill, to deny themselves any raise for 2010.

There won’t be a Social Security COLA increase this January, and probably not in January 2011 either. This is because the official measure of the cost of living, based on legislation passed in 1972, has gone down due to volatile oil prices. Social Security checks have gone up automatically every year since 1975, except for 1983 when there was no increase. This year's Social Security COLA was 5.8%.

Three quarters of Medicare beneficiaries will not have to pay any increased Part B premiums because of a "hold-harmless" provision in the law. This provision prohibits Part B premiums from rising in any one year more than that year's cost of living increase in Social Security benefits.

People who are covered by the hold-harmless provision will continue to pay Part B premiums of $96.40 per month in 2010. But this hold-harmless protection does not apply to about one in four (or about 11 million) beneficiaries who:

do not have their Part B premiums withheld from their Social Security checks, or

pay a higher Part B premium surcharge based on high income, or

are newly enrolled in Part B.

Since 75 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are protected from a premium increase, the remaining 25 percent are going to have to bear the full brunt of the increase in Part B costs. They are going to get hit by significantly higher Part B premiums next year unless Congress addresses this problem before then.

House of Representatives voted on September 24 to eliminate all Medicare Part B premium increases for this remaining 25% in 2010. The bill now goes to the Senate, where the Finance Committee is expected to take it up soon, though no hearings were scheduled.

[Shireling]

13. I'll never understand

:grr:

[inna]

14. KR+13.

this is just OBSCENE.


:banghead:

[ecstatic]

15. What about 2010 (the year in question)? Still--it seems to be

hypocrisy at it's finest.

[tritsofme]

16. SS recipients will receive a de facto COLA increase

In the form of a $250 bonus check.

The desire to demonize the 535 members of Congress for their pay is counterproductive. All the super rich folks in Congress probably couldn't care less what their salaries are, they would work for free to have power. It is the true citizen legislators who do no possess vast personal wealth, whose numbers are smaller than they ought to be, that benefit most from the modest salary congressmen receive.