Congress Balks At Freezing Their Pay Raises Until the Budget Is Balanced

Times are really tough for Americans these days, it seems almost daily that some news comes out that this new program will cost in the neighborhood of $500 billion and that old program will be beefed up to the tune of another $700 billion and well we’ve just got to make sure that our governing czars and Cabinet Secretaries and legislators and Administrators are all living in the luxurious manner to which they have become accustomed, so the overall administrative costs, along with the uncommonly large numbers of new employees being added to our government payrolls so the unemployment figures won’t look so bad until the length of the government employee financial sheet is literally longer that this very lengthy sentence I’ve just written to tell you about it.

---

Hey, didn’t our illustrious leader say that it takes money to make money? Not sure what he meant by that, but I do know that it’s costing us taxpayers more and more, and we haven’t even gotten the big bills yet. On the other hand, as some of us know, the annual cost of living allowance (COLA) on elderly peoples’ Social Security checks was cancelled this year and I understand it will be cancelled again in 2011, 2012 and 2013 because it is said that the cost of living didn’t rise much this year. Honestly! They did say that, and with a straight face too. All the snickering and laughing up sleeves was being done behind closed doors. Congress says they’re not responsible for this, that the Social Security Commission made the decision. Well, Congress saying they’re not responsible is partially correct, they don’t seem to be able to do anything anymore except spend our money in huge bites. And they never seem to be able to help the elderly at all. Someone has to pay for those $100 a pound gala steak dinners the Obama clan throws every Wednesday night at the White House; we shouldn’t expect the president to pay for them out of his nearly one half million dollars a year salary and expense account, should we? OK. So a lot of Social Security checks are small, averaging a bit over $500 a month- - - and they probably think that the tiny amount they dribble out to compensate for cost of living increases is probably not worth all the bother and cost of paperwork to pay out such puny COLA’s. After all, the elderly didn’t get any of those salaries and wages in industry that have taken some rather large jumps and all those increases take a toll on price increases by industry to compensate for the wage increases. But then again the government has said that there were no real increases in the cost of living in 2009. Who am I to argue with them? And I’ll just bet you that Congress figured, ‘Hey, why bother with such a small amount to help offset those other increases. It won’t make much of a dent. On the other hand, our Congressional salaries are so high that an annual COLA represents a sizeable amount of money – amounting to several thousands of dollars. Now that’s worth while continuing to dole out to us Congress elites, so we’re going to keep doing it. Maybe in the future we’ll give the Social Security peasants a small pittance to placate them and keep them in line where they belong.” Now let’s see; Congress doesn’t have to pay for their travel to and from home to Washington, DC; hey, Nancy Pelosi even has a government provided jumbo jet aircraft at her beck and call to hop out to San Francisco, or anywhere for that matter; they have their own exercise rooms right near their office suites (how suite it is), along with so many other free perks and privileges that they have voted for themselves over the years ALL at taxpayer expense. That’s a pretty pampered and spoiled bunch of brats I would say. Only to refuse to give a COLA to elderly people on Social Security, changes the word ‘brats’ to just plain old ‘rats’, don’t you agree? Nice people those Congress superior beings. How about House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, (D-Md.) who was quoted in today’s CNSNews.com article, “Hoyer Says He Is Not a ‘Big Supporter’ of Freezing Congressional Pay Until Budget Is Balanced”? I just bet he isn’t. Why should the elite of our country have to suffer not getting pay raises just because they can’t control their spending habits on ultra-costly legislation that will sock it to the taxpayers and maybe ever cause other than the elderly to not get COLA increases? There is a new petition making the rounds on the Internet which would not only establish Term Limits, but cut Congressional salaries by up to as much as fifty or more percent; take away a lot of their “expense accounts” and eliminate paid health and life insurance and their current retirement plan. One problem is what is missing from the plan and that is the inflated salaries of our government employee elites all the way up to the El Presidente and his nearly half-million a year salary. It is a step in the right direction to bring America back to control by the people, of the people and for the people, and not those who govern the people; they will become truly what they are supposed to be now, - compensated employees of the people.

---