Members of Congress get $4,000 pay raise

[Magleetis]

Source: MSNBC

Lawmakers in 2008 will receive salaries of $169,300, a boost of $4,100 over the pay they have lived with since January 2006.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22575787/

---

Unbelievable.

[Hydra]

1. I need that 4k!!!!

:mad:

I doubt they need it as much as I do...of course, I don't support torture and refunding wars, so I guess I get the short end of the stick.

[LakeSamish706]

2. "Unbelievable." No Shit, that is truly Unbelievable... They should have...

taken $4000.00 back from them for the crappy job they have done.

[Bjorn Against]

26. More like it should be unbelievable...

Unfortunately with greedy bastards like these in office there is very little that is unbelievable these days. I would be more surprised if they had not given themselves a substantial raise.

[MadHound]

3. And what have they done to deserve this?

Gee, I wish I could get a raise for doing a piss poor job.

[RavensChick]

8. As a Federal employee

I only got a 4.49% COL increase, which only adds a few cents to my current salary, and will get taxed so bad it's ridiculous!! It's not much since I'm a grade 5 and at the bottom of the totem pole where I am. They may have done a piss poor job, but with all the blood, sweat, tears, and bullshit I put up with every day I should get a medal for my efforts!

[ixion]

4. everyone else's (except ceo's) wages are stagnant or declining

but congress votes themselves a nice juicy raise, despite the fact that we're in the middle of a recession.

Must be nice.

[kimmylavin]

5. "the pay they have lived with"

Poor, poor babies.
How on earth did they "live with" just $165,200?
I'll be crying for them as I cash my check for $300 from last week...

[rockybelt]

6. Come on people

They deserve it! Why, just look at what they have accomplished since 2006. They have cleared up just a multitude of things. Theres......and then theres........and how can we forget.......

Put them up side things they didn't get done, you know because of vacations and such, there is no comparison. They didnt' get anything done about stopping the war but they sure as hell funded it some more.
Nobody was held accountable for anything.

More of the Constitution was torn to shreds, but other than that, I mean what the hey? They deserve this money!

They would have gotten more benefits but they just couldn't figure out how to make them any better.

I hold them in high esteem. (I'd like to hold them over a boiling pot of oil until my hands got too weak to hold them.)

[rubberducky]

7. Sure do wish I could vote myself a raise. $4,000!!!!

WTF????

[zeemike]

9. Oh thank god something was finally done

I was worried about them not having enough to eat with the high cost of living now. You can't expect them to vote on a bill when there stomach is growling.
Maybe we could collect some canned food for them to tide them over. How about it, I have a can of beans I could spare.

:sarcasm:

[left is right]

10. I have always maintaned that our congress critters

should be paid the mean (exact middle) wage for the district they represent. Of course, they should get a little extra for being majority/minority whip and being Speaker of the House--maybe $5-10 an hour more. I guess we should allow them some kind of housing and transportation allowance, but that too should be based upon standard housing costs and airfare for their area. If their home district is close maybe they could take a Greyhound Bus home.

Why should a congressman from some backwater in MS without any industrial base earn the same as one from NYC?

[harmonicon]

20. because it costs a lot more to travel to that backwater many times a year? nt.

[ladywnch]

11. I still say, WE the PEOPLE should be the ones to decide if , when

and how much a raise Congress gets. How can we get this done? This should go along with term limits.

[nebula]

12. This is absurd

most of them are already millionaires even when you don't count their congressional salaries.

[madrchsod]

13. good for them..i made about 7,000 last year

[acmavm]

14. Look at this:

<snip>
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will get a pay boost from $212,100 last year to $217,400, the same as Chief Justice Roberts. The majority and minority leaders of the House and Senate and Senate president pro tempore Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., will get increases from $183,500 to $188,100.

Dick Cheney, in his last year as vice president, will receive $221,100, up from $215,700. President Bush's salary of $400,000 is unchanged.

<snip>

I am so glad that these people won't be losing their home, go hungry, be without health care, not able to pay their utilities. Poor babies.

:sarcasm:

[zbdent]

15. compliments of the Repuke tidal wave that said that the automatic pay raises

were unconstitutional and illegal ... until they were in power, and embraced them ...

Oh, and someone better tell George Will that these Repukes believe that they're "middle class", and that many Repukes have whined that they can't survive on that amount ...

[OhioChick]

16. Must Be Nice. n/t

[gaspee]

17. Unfucking believeable

That 4 grand is half a year's pay for me - and I work a hell of a lot more hours than they do.

Fuckers.

[rmgarrette64]

22. Really?

$4,000 is half a year's pay? So you make $8,000 a year, live in Rhode Island (according to your profile), and have been on DU for 3 years. Oh, and you work more hours than Congress does, so I'm assuming you're not retired, an invalid, or a child. I suppose the DU membership could be a red herring - I was going to suggest internet access is too great a luxury, but there are public accesses at libraries.

But really, how do you manage? $8,000 a year works out to a weekly salary of just over $150 (and in a 40 hour week is $3.85/hour, which is illegal, but I'll assume you're working part time...)

Now, this isn't intended as an attack, but I think details are important. And when you make a numerical claim that seems, well, improbable, I'd like to clear it up.

Thanks,

R. Garrett

[superconnected]

24. There are lots of jobs that are exempt from minimum wage

care taker for family member, farm labor, etc.

Plus the person could be talking about their after tax income. My niece works her butt off but likely doesn't clear 8k a year after taxes with the non-skilled jobs she takes.

[gaspee]

29. thanks

I wasn't around earlier to stick up for myself.

And you're dead on. I take care of my elderly parents and my developementally disabled younger brother. For cash I deliver newspapers and with the price of gas, I make half of what I did three years ago.

So while I don't really have any bills - no credit cards, no car payment, etc, I make very little money for the hours I work.

And I have two degrees. Undergrad and MA.

[gaspee]

30. nice

so you think they deserve that raise then?

And FYI, I take care of my elderly parents and my developementally disabled younger brother. I deliver newspapers for spending money. I put in a hell of a lot of hours a day. To pay someone what I do would cost a shitload of money, but because it's caregiver work, I don't get paid for it.

I suppose I could let my elderly parents forget their meds or burn down the house when they try to cook or go into a shitty retirement home (because that's what they could afford on their shitty social security after working 40-50 hours a week their entire lives) and put my brother into a shitty group home, but then I'd probably be a republican and not be around here to get called out by other DU members.

If I hear one more self-entitled prick say they should have planned for their retirement better, I won't be responsible for what I do. You try being working poor in this country and have any money to save. I think a large segment of DU have no idea what it's like to live paycheck to payheck.

I used to be a hedge fund floor trader from 1991-2000 so I do actually have some money saved but not enough to support us all. Oh, and I can collect social security in approx 30 years - if I live that long. Oh yeah, I don't have health insurance - lucky me!

Nice one! Asswipe.

[nancyr]

18. I'm speechless.

What a pack of shameless blood-suckers.

[ohio2007]

19. House Democratic leaders joined with their Republican counterparts

to oppose a procedural vote to bring the COLA issue to the floor, leaving the way clear for their automatic raise.



hmmmmm.
So

where is the vote breakdown?
somebody must have voted against the pay raise....NOT !

[NikolaC]

21. For What?

A great job performance? Doing an excellent job of representing their constituents? Abiding by the Constitution and the will of the American people? :sarcasm: They have not done ANYTHING to merit it. Furthermore, if any of us were to screw up in our jobs and not do what our bosses told us to do, we would have been demoted (with a pay cut NOT a raise) and/or fired. November is coming up faster than they think. They need to seriously earn their raise between now and then if they hope to keep their jobs.

[allisonthegreat]

23. Oh please and folks on ssdi got what a 2%...n/t

[cutlassmama]

25. That's what I was going to post. Not only that, but our Medicare

premiums went UP!

[ChromeFoundry]

27. Where is the pay increase

for the US service men/women?

[fascisthunter]

28. Yet, Impeachment is Off the Table

here's a raise, everybody! Corporate America thanks you from the bottom of every tax payer's pocket.

[OneBlueSky]

31. well, it sure as hell ain't a merit increase . . . n/t

.

[laylah]

32. I believe that

is not a whole lot more than I made in 2007, God/dess love 'em. Wonder if they will share? :sarcasm:

[CRK7376]

33. Boy I sure could use

a $4100 pay raise. Must be nice to get huge raises for serving the public...then there is the lifetime retirement plan they get for serving a few terms....Must be nice....we should all be so lucky.