Congress: Historic Deficit Worth another Pay Raise?

If I were in Congress I would have voted last week to suspend further raises for members of Congress until the budget is balanced.

Instead, Congress just voted itself another pay raise, led by Mr. DeLay in the middle of historic deficits and people struggling with historic high gas prices and a lackluster economy. With this latest increase, Mr. DeLay will be earning $183,000/year! ("Majority leader" gets more than a "regular" Congressman).

That doesn't count another $120,000 or so his wife and daughter will rake in this year via the PACS. Under Texas community property laws, DeLay is now making about $250,000/year when you add in Christine's pay.

Sweet deal, if you believe in nepotism. I think it is another form of corruption of our process under his leadership.

This pay raise comes after Mr. DeLay voted AGAINST money for vets (a vet told me DeLay once told a group meeting he attended that he'd shut down every VA hospital in the country if it were up to him). This is after he voted against teachers (their earned pensions were cut last year). And this is after he voted against letting the government negotiate for lower drug prices to hold down costs, etc., etc.

So why is Mr. DeLay and the rest of Congress deserving of a pay raise? For doing a great job taking surpluses and turning them into debts?

Or is it just more selfishness and hypocrisy. Congress should have the guts and leadership to suspend its pay increases until it gets the deficit under control. This is a deficit it created! The people certainly didn't do it, but they (we) pay the price.

Welcome to DeLay’s DC “Alice in Wonderland" where logic is backwards and common sense is upside down.

It is this kind of relentless hypocrisy that makes me consider another GOP primary run against this type of self-serving leadership. This is NOT my idea of the government that George Washington, Ben Franklin and John Hancock envisioned when creating the Declaration of Independence 229 years ago today.