Conscious Choice: Congress Fattens Their Own Wallets

November 2003 | Hightower Lowdown

Congress Fattens Their Own Wallets

by Jim Hightower

With major corporations punting 200,000 American workers out the door every month, with middle-class wages being suppressed in every economic sector (from service jobs to high tech), and with the consumer economy sputtering due to lack of public confidence that things will get better anytime soon — it’s very reassuring to see Congress step foward and intervene directly to pump new money into our economy by raising the wage floor.

You say you haven’t noticed any increase in your wages? Well, that’s because you’re not in Congress. Yes, by a bipartisan vote, our public servants have now lifted the wage floor for themselves by another $3,000 each. I say "another," because this is the fifth year in a row that these champions of fiscal integrity have hiked their own income at the expense of us taxpayers. In the past five years, their self-adjusting annual paycheck has risen more than $20,000 — now reaching $158,000 per Congress critter, per year.

Of course, our so-called representatives can’t even do this honestly and above-board. Instead, they play a game called: Hide-the-Payraise. Here’s how it’s played: Years ago, Congress quietly snuck a provision into law that awards them an automatic cost-of-living raise every year.... unless they vote each year to deny themselves the increase. As you might imagine, they’ve shown remarkable restraint in that regard, refusing to deny themselves a raise for five straight years.

Congressional leaders even insult our intelligence with absurd claims like this one by Dick Armey, then the former Republican house majority leader: "The Congress didn’t vote themselves a pay raise. We just simply did not deny ourselves that normal increase in our cost of living that every other worker in America not only expects, but insists upon."

When I hear a doofus like Armey, I think: 100,000 sperm and you were the fastest?

Jim Hightower is a columnist and author. To subscribe to The Hightower Lowdown, send $15, and your name, and address to: Lowdown, P.O. Box 20596, New York, NY 10011. Visit his web site for more info.

Recommend this page to a friend

Top Ten pages recommended to friends: