Posted on 03/10/2013 4:35:21 AM PDT by SkyPilot
U.S. lawmakers won’t have their $174,000 salaries affected by across-the-board government spending cuts going into effect this month, but there’s little clarity about how the bank accounts of senators and representatives were spared in the so-called sequester.
The spending cuts hit every budget account with a few exceptions that were written into the law that set up the federal budgeting process more than two decades ago, known as the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act. Compensation for the president is specifically exempted, but there’s no mention of pay for members of Congress.
So how did lawmakers’ pay escape the axe? Turns out that’s a mystery with conflicting explanations that lead deep into a rabbit hole of federal budgeting arcana.
The Office of Management and Budget, the agency in charge of executive branch money matters, hasn’t said how it determined that lawmakers’ salaries would continue to flow from the Treasury unscathed.
The issue of lawmakers’ pay has been politically fraught since the founding of the nation. A constitutional amendment limiting Congress’s ability to change its own pay was originally passed as part of the Bill of Rights in 1789, but was not ratified until 1992. The 27th Amendment prevents changes in congressional salaries from taking effect until an election has occurred.
Several news outlets, including CNN and Politico, have cited the 27th Amendment as the explanation for why lawmakers’ pay has been unscathed. But the 2012 election took place after the sequester was signed into law and before it took effect.
An OMB official said the amendment is not the reason lawmaker salaries are intact, adding only that “they are not subject to sequester and never have been.”
The agency’s report on the sequester, required by the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012, lists lawmaker salaries as “exempt” but there’s no reason provided...
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.washingtonpost.com ...
Meanwhile, for the low paid GS-3s and GS-4s out there:
So how did lawmakers’ pay escape the axe? Turns out that’s a mystery with conflicting explanations that lead deep into a rabbit hole of federal budgeting arcana.
Glad the protected class is doing so well.
Why do they write these stories instead of reading the Constitution. Congressional pay cannot be changed until an election has intervened.
At least now we know why the drones are taking to the air. The Death Panels decide who, when and where.
“Several news outlets, including CNN and Politico, have cited the 27th Amendment as the explanation for why lawmakers’ pay has been unscathed. But the 2012 election took place after the sequester was signed into law and before it took effect.”
As if anyone in the Devil’s Closet gives a damn. Matter of fact, the fed gov, all three branches, has become the new Devil’s Triangle. Whoever gets caught in there stays in there and what does emerge is nothing we recognize.
You yourself posted without reading the article. The explanation is there.
I wrote my Congressman about this. I received a form letter reply telling me to take a tour of Capitol Hill someday. Really.
A veritable palace built to house crooks, scammers and schemers wasn’t at all what the Founders had in mind.
Would be willing to bet the SC would state this is covered under the “commerce clause”
The government has become a leech, a parasite on the body of this nation. Time to call Orkin.
Too late ... Orkin is spelled d-r-o-n-e
So how many letters have you written to the Obama Administration and Congress protesting this?
The sequester is the work of the zer0 regime, not the congress and the regime is where cuts should come, Not congress.
IRRELEVANT.
Their REAL money comes from graft and insider trading, of course. They can skip this “pay” or salary stuff and hardly miss it at all.
Bingo:
The man with the real answer.
Nobody spends the money these people spend to get a job that pays a paltry $174,000 dollars a year.
Nancy Pelosi didnt get rich off her salary, but off of the laws she made and benefitted from.
Half of them belong in Orange jumpsuits and the other half should be watched closely.
You are showing a startling lack of respect for America’s Ubermenschen!
Queen Pelosi is Not amused.
AgencyPersons are reading everything!
They know about your respect deficit and are eager to ‘help you’.
;-)
FMCDH(BITS)
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