Posted on 12/20/2008 10:18:53 AM PST by AJKauf
In the past, whenever I heard that Congress had voted itself a raise (Shh! Don’t spread the news around, Comrade!), I shrugged it off. “Nice work if you can get,” was my basic reaction. I did not think highly of members of Congress as a group–a preening bunch of socialistically-inclined bureaucrats, most of them, I thought–but they were necessary, as in a “necessary evil.” Somebody had to mind the wheels of gummint, and better they than I.
Somehow it was different this time. The sotto voce announcement that Congress, after wagging their collective head over executive pay and perks, decided to vote itself a $2.5 million raise was a depressing portent....
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
The 27th Amendment states, “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened.”
So...when did Congress vote itself this raise? If it was passed after last month’s election, it cannot take effect until after the 2010 election.
Anyway, we can undo this?
After all, they need to sacrifice to for the country. It’s only FAIR.
This article expresses everything that I have been upset about over the past weeks. I mean, I could have written it is so spot on!
Stupid Congress, stupid Blagojevich, stupid Al Franken and the roll over & play dead GOP, no one bothers to care about anything unless it involves being racially or (homo)sexually “offended”, and finally the exact same reason I admire Sarah Palin. She is one of us and she had the nerve to stand up and say “NO NO NO, you are doing this all wrong. Move over and I’ll show you how it’s supposed to be done.” Sarah got punished in the media (left and right wing) for NOT being a politician and that is exactly what the average American loves about her.
Where else can your employer give you a job approval rating of 9%, and you still get a raise?
Of course, where else do you get to set your own salary?
A liberal friend of mine and I, on opposite ends of the political spectrum, took it upon ourselves about 8 years ago to check into this in a similar situation and contacted our senators and representatives to protest the obvious violation of the constitution.
It turns out that "their Honorablenesses" got around this inconvenience by passing a law years ago giving themselves automatic increases. Every time the increase is due to take effect, they have to vote against it to prevent it from happening.
Somehow this is considered to be within both the spirit and the letter of that constitutional requirement.
Most all employees with an approval rating of 9% usually get canned.
Sadly, none of that surprises me. Thanks for your message.
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