From The Ramparts

Does Congress Work For You? (Part 2)

Does Congress Work For You? (Part 2)

“The cost-of-living increase for members of Congress which will put pay for the rank and file at an estimated $165,200 a year marked a brief truce in the pitched political battles that have flared in recent weeks on the war and domestic issues. So much so that the issue was not mentioned on the floor of either the House or Senate as lawmakers worked on legislation whose passage will assure bigger paychecks. Lawmakers automatically receive a cost of living increase each year, unless Congress votes to block it. By tradition, critics have tried to block increases by attaching a provision to the legislation that provides funding for the Treasury Department. One such attempt succeeded in the Senate earlier in the year, but the provision was omitted from the compromise measure moved toward final approval. The overall bill provided $140 billion for transportation, housing and other programs. It cleared the House on a vote of 392-31. Senate passage was by voice vote. Pay raise harmony aside, Republicans spent the day celebrating a party-line, post-midnight vote in which the House cleared legislation to reduce deficits by $50 billion over five years. The vote was 217-215, with all the Democrats who voted in opposition, along with 14 GOP rebels.” Washington Post 11-18-05

While most wage earners are struggling to make ends meet during a time of wage stagnation and rising costs our Congress critters in Washington D.C. gave themselves a pay increase. I normally wouldn’t begrudge them getting more money but it just seems wrong for them to pad their paychecks while they cut benefits for poor people and give huge tax breaks to the super rich. This is the height of disconnect and hubris How can these people who are elected by the people so cavalierly disregard the economic realities their policies create? They pass so called “free trade” bills that send AmeriKKKan jobs overseas and force AmeriKKKan workers to compete with sweat shop and slave wages overseas. They cut billions in domestic social programs like Food Stamps and college loans, yet rubber stamp no bid contracts and defense requests to keep the carnage going in Iraq and Afghanistan. They routinely dole out mega bucks to corporate slicksters and conmen who rob us blind on projects like hurricane disaster relief, the so called rebuilding of Iraq, HUD and Department of Defense Programs. When will we wake up? How long will we allow the bagmen and women in Congress (most of them have their hands out grubbing for lobbyist and special interest dollars to fatten their campaign coffers and line their own pockets. Someone once called them “the best Congress money can buy”) to piss on us and then tell us it’s raining? Imagine the audacity of your local Congress critter telling you he or she voted for spending cuts when they never vote against the failed and insane fiscal polices of George W. Bu$h; the very policies Bu$h’s father called “Voodoo Economics” when he ran against Ronald Reagan in the ‘84 primaries. Reaganomics or trickle down policies failed then and the accelerated version of the Bu$h administration is proving equally disastrous for this country now. Yet our Congress citters continue to cow tow to the NeoConmen’s agenda of bankrupting this nation while looting its coffers via perpetual war, fraud and insider good ol’ boy boondoggles. Yet they cry poor and fiscal responsibility when it comes time to do something to help poor people and working class folks ? FEMA claims it is out of money to help the evacuees of Hurricane Katrina. How did that happen? You think No Bid contracts to favored good ol boy networks like Halliburton or Bechtel had anything to do with it?
Then the money grubbers turn around and give themselves a pay raise this means a rank and file, not a long tenured ranking member or Committee Chairperson but your average Joe Congressman will earn $3,100 more a year, boosting their annual pay to about $165,200! This doesn’t count the automatic cost of living allowance they get (unless they vote to block it, which they rarely do). How many of you reading this just got a $3,100 raise or make $165,000 a year? If they were taking care of the people’s business I’d say more power to ‘em but AmeriKKKa is in shambles and because of their spinlessness, Bu$h does whatever he wants and gets just about everything he and his handlers ask for. Have you checked the national debt lately? Does it bother you the government is borrowing two billion dollars a day to cover the costs of operations including the costs of its psychopathic imperial overreach? Does it make sense to reward people for this kind of idiocy? I can think of a few good ways to get their attention. One is on election day 2006.

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 7:27 AM