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. thehill.com

The 2009 annual salary for rank-and-file senators and representatives is $174,000, up from last year’s $169,300.

The legislative pay hike comes as major U.S. employers shed jobs by the tens of thousands. Many worker salaries have been frozen or cut. Their benefits often have been slashed.

Families are pinching pennies and watching retirement accounts evaporate.In this decade, Congress has allowed the pay increase to go through for every year except 2007. The percentage increase is tied to private-sector wages and cannot be more than increases granted to general federal employees.

This follows the news from this weekend that Congress approved $93,000 more in petty cash for each member. Gatewaypundit.blogspot.com

I am all for people getting periodic MERIT raises but this automatic increase no matter what kind of job a person is doing has bankrupted this country. Capital Hill constantly pontificates on the sacrifices AMERICA has to make and then they turn around and pad their salaries and increase their benefits packages all at the expense of the taxpayer.

As the average American family is trying to survive this government induced economic recession, Capital Hill continues to spend OUR MONEY without any regard to the hardships they are placing upon their constituents. I am proposing a spending cut starting with all federal and public employees. I propose that all federal and public employees should have their wages and benefits reduced by the same percentage as the GDP index reduces. In other words the economy has shrunk by almost 6% since Obama took office so therefore the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT and all public employees and offices must reduce all spending and wages by at least 6%.

Once they have done all that then they can start to eliminate all PORK and earmark spending by at least 6%. I propose that all federal, and public employees who live off of TAXPAYER money must have their wages  froze at the MEDIUM wage of all workers in their states. In other words all State Senators and Representatives can not earn more than the AVERAGE of all other state residents. They should not be earning huge wages while the people they represent are struggling to manage their households. Perhaps if all Federal, and Public employees would suffer along with their constituents then perhaps they will listen a little more intently when we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. What say you?

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