Congress Getting $4,700 Pay Raise...

Joe Biden says the economy is in danger of "absololutely tanking."

Barack Obama says that the economy is "going to get worse before it gets better."

$700 billion of our tax dollars went to bail out Wall Street and financial firms.

George W. Bush is giving $17 billion of our tax dollars to bail out the auto unions and manufacturers.

Nearly 2,000,000 jobs have been lost this year.

401(k) plans have lost nearly 50% of their value this year.

Times are worse than tough, but that's not going to stop Congress from giving themselves a $4,700.00 pay raise in January.

From MarketWatch.com:

WASHINGTON, Dec 18, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today urged lawmakers to make their first order of business when they reconvene in the nation's capitol in January to introduce legislation to freeze congressional salaries at current rates. All Members of Congress are slated to get an automatic pay raise in January, 2009 unless they vote to block it. Each rank and file member of Congress is poised to see another $4,700 in his or her paycheck over the next year, an increase of 2.8 percent over their current $169,300 annual salary.

 

"Members of Congress don't deserve one additional dime of taxpayer money in 2009," said CCAGW President Tom Schatz. "While thousands of Americans are facing layoffs and downsizing, Congress should be mortified to accept a raise. They failed to pass most of their appropriations bills, the deficit is on pace to reach an unprecedented $1 trillion, and the national debt stands at $10 trillion. In addition, this Congress has been ethically challenged, plagued with corruption allegations, convictions, and sex scandals."

 

It's bad enough that they're taking our money to pay to prop up businesses that deserve to fail and unions that deserve to shut down.  It's worse that thousands of Americans are facing losing their job every months in layoffs--something that's become increasingly common in this economy.

Now, they want to take a little more money from us to put it in their own wallets.  Wallets which currently get paid nearly $170,000 per year.

They waste so much of our money, and now they want to reward themselves for a job well done?

I find that offensive.