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clipped from thehill.com

A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who
have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for
free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.

Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting
to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional
salaries, and watchdog groups are not happy about it.

However, at 2.8 percent, the automatic raise that
lawmakers receive is only half as large as the 2009 cost of living adjustment
of Social Security recipients.

“Look at the way the economy is and how most people
aren’t counting on a holiday bonus or a pay raise — they’re just happy to have
gainful employment,” said Ellis. “But you have the lawmakers who are set up and
ready to get their next installment of a pay raise and go happily along their
way.”

Member raises are often characterized as examples of
wasteful spending, especially when many constituents and businesses in members’
districts are in financial despair.