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You do realize that every single year the GOP controlled Congress under Bush's 8 years in office they received a raise every year....right???
[The wingnuts sure do seem to care about spending when Dems are in charge but don't raise a peep when Bush and his rubberstampers created the biggest deficits in US history]
No, I complained just as much then. But I believe in giving blame where blame is due.
I love how you call me a wingnut, since I'm not a part of either wing. In fact, I have an equal loathing for both political parties in the United States, and consider them all to be scoundrels and traitors to the virtues of individual liberty.
Yeah you heard right, a raise. While the economy melts around us, Congress, in all its wisdom decided to vote to give itself a raise. Additionally, it is now law that Congress get an automatic cost of living raise in exchange, they had to give up receiving money for giving speeches. I had to laugh because I suspect that no one was begging them to give speeches, so might as well just vote to get an auto-raise.
When discussed in an earlier thread, some of us thought it was OK, and that they may even be underpaid:
I don't think the amount of money made by Congressmen, Senators and kin is all that outrageous in of itself. Add in one of the best benefits packages that last the remainder of their lives and they are doing ok.
Part of this is the perception of the situation in the current climate. While unemployment rates are starting to sharply increase, inflation is on the rise, foreclosures are going to continue to explode for at least the next year to 18 months and people are going to be facing the most difficult modern financial crisis of nearly everyone's lives, to then see those same people who are at least in part responsible getting a raise. While their raise might not put them on the cover of Fortune magazine, there will be many next year burning copies of Fortune magazine to merely keep warm in winter.
At most levels of any company, an employee is paid a wage which usually depending upon proficiency, effort, dedication, and ability to do a job will increase as time goes on for trading their skills for money. If you are a lousy manager and your store fails to meet quota, you are canned or at least demoted and a better manager installed. If you are working on a factory floor and those little chocolates don't get wrapped fast enough, you are not proficient and you lose your job. Until you reach the level of CEO, which is obtained by a variety of means, of course the most prevalent being ability. However many people at this level of the corporate ladder fell into this level of position, I mean after all, what do you do with a CEO who runs three companies into the ground and can't find oil in Texas, why, make him President. There is a legacy/inheritance/family factor to this as well and kudo's to them, but that doesn't mean they are proficient or even qualified other than in name.
In the case of politicians, it is as Plato stated oh so many years ago, that in a democracy it isn't always the most qualified who gains office but merely the person who can offer the best speech as the crowd so hungry for honey will almost always vote for the guy who repeats what they most wish to hear. For that, we have no one to blame but ourselves and I'm considering joining the
Toast Masters myself, just in case I some day wish to fleece the foolish masses.
As someone mentioned in the links you posted that our politicians are the most under paid executives in Washington, and I suspect that is true. However, when we look at the rates of CEO pay rates over the past 50 years you will notice that they increase in a geometrically progressive rate and totally disproportionate to ALL other work classes. The reason politicians aren't making as much as other executives is that other executives are simply making more money than they are worth, sorry but they are.
In our capitalist and might makes right society, you would think the performance would be the ultimate measure of a persons paycheck, given they are qualified to start with. Yet here we are today neck deep in an utter economic meltdown and those responsible (and there are many) continue to make exorbitant sums of money. Sounds almost like Communism with a corporate flair or even a plutocracy.
Then again, there are different rules and how laws are applied depending upon who we are and our station in life. If I cheat on my taxes to the sum of a couple of hundred dollars, I risk going to prison. I choose to favor legislation or lack of, that would provide some oversight into billions or even trillions of dollars that leads to an utter disasters, I don't go to prison, I retire in Aruba or run for a second term.
You got me to thinking about how Congressional salaries have fared against inflation. I began my federal career in early 1973, and at that time their salary was $42,500 per year.
I ran the numbers through the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator, to see what that would translate to today. I found that their salaries would need to be $203,334 in 2008. Based upon this way of viewing salary, I guess you could rationalize they have "suffered" a significant pay cut the past 35 years.
Personally I don't think we should pay our congressmen diddly squat. Afterall most of them are taking money from special interest anyway, so why should the American taxpayers have to pay them to?
I say since they think that CEOs that work for $1.00 is a good idea they should do the same ;afterall they were the watch dogs on oversite and really screwedup on fannie Mae and Mac. Better yet we need to restructure and fire them.
Guess we are already starting on the "Change to believe in." So they thought it couldn't get any worse and guess what, IT GOT WORSE.
I just heard on the news that Duke Energy employees have a pay freeze, but guess what. It doesn't include the president. I don't know about the other stockholders, but I am going to have something to say about this one and I have a lot of other friends that are stockholders too.
As long as we allow these things to happen, they will keep happening.
I love that CPI "inflation indicator". Of course isn't inflation basically the value of the dollar decreasing? If so, then why is it always going down faster than the cost of living? (or rate of inflation rising) What would it take or would it even be possible to have a dollar with 0 inflation?
People say that we make way more money today and they would be right, but the cost of goods increases proportionately or even more often, faster than cost of living rates. So what is the point being that these terms are relative?
A loaf of bread in my local market cost as much as an hours wage 30 years ago. 30 years from now at the current rate of increase, it will take a wheelbarrow full of dollars and 50 years we may end up like Zimbabwe and just adding an extra zero to our dollar each week.
Now this is a novel idea. Love it!
In 30 years money will have become passe. We'll pay with our fingerprint as we leave the store.
The American people ought to vote each year on whether or not the U.S. Congress deserves a raise.
Or the people the Congressman is supposed to represent can vote to pay him or her more or not. After all, it's the people in their districts that legislators are representing, not the American people as a whole.
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