Congress Gives Itself A Raise; Palin Turns One Down

You’d think that with Blago in the news for his greed and America’s economy getting the hurt put on it that maybe, just maybe our representatives in Washington D.C. would have the good sense to not jam their hands into the cookie jar. You’d be wrong.

This “do nothing” Congress has decided they’ve done enough of nothing to earn themselves a fat little pay raise:

A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.

Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries, and watchdog groups are not happy about it.

“As lawmakers make a big show of forcing auto executives to accept just $1 a year in salary, they are quietly raiding the vault for their own personal gain,” said Daniel O’Connell, chairman of The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a non-partisan group. “This money would be much better spent helping the millions of seniors who are living below the poverty line and struggling to keep their heat on this winter.”

Sadly, I’m not surprised at all with the current majority. After the Republican-led Senate voted down a pay raise in 2006 are we really surprised to see the “tax more, spend more” Dems get greedy when the economy is worse than 2 years ago? As a frame of reference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) makes $217,400 a year so surely she needs another $5K, right?

Thankfully though, not all politicians are the same. Sarah Palin has announced that she’ll be turning down a $25,000 pay raise as governor of Alaska:

A new state commission appointed by Palin recommends boosting the governor’s pay from $125,000 to $150,000. The State Officers Compensation Commission says the lieutenant governor, department heads and legislators need more money too.

But if the commission pushes ahead with a pay raise, Palin won’t accept the money, said spokesman Bill McAllister.

“Her view is, it’s just not appropriate to accept a pay raise in the middle of the term.”…

This is excellent the type of example we need the GOP governors to set for America and show voters that the Republican party is the party that knows how to be fiscally conservative. I’m sure Obama will give them plenty of opportunities to remember that over the next 4 years.

Source: TheHill & HotAir

Thanks to Kenneth for the news tip on Congress’ greed. Got a tip? Send it.

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