Our Congress at work

yeah really, what they should be doing is working on legislation for a new Shiavo bill to resurrect the dead, but seriously folks, I think congress should be paid a salary equal to their responsibility not unlike the private sector, the fact that most/all of the members of congress for freaking idiots (not unlike many ceo's in the private sector) there are so many reasons to vote the bastards out of office and put in some real fruitcakes like Tom Cruise (if the money is right)

I don't even know how to formulate the words to respond to this.

When you consider all the perks and fringes a congress person gets I wonder what they actually cost the taxpayer.
Of course one should never forget the little "gifts" they get from lobbyists and "donors" and the family members they have on the payroll.
Regarding whether they deserve a raise in pay. Based on performance they should be out on their A$$es

When the First Congress sent out a bill of rights for ratification, they sent twelve proposed amendments, not ten. The first proposed will likely never be ratified. The second proposed amendment was ratified more than two hundred years later:

AMENDMENT XXVII

Originally proposed Sept. 25, 1789. Ratified May 7, 1992.

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened.


Somebody should sue those sons-of-bitches.

Setanta
Don't they get around that law by calling it a COLA not a raise?

That's why someone needs to bring suit, AU . . . the men of the constitutional convention and in the First Congress were no idiots--they intentionally worded things broadly so as to facilitate interpretation, and make the law flexible and durable. The text reads: " . . . compensation for the services of . . ." and i purport that a good case can be made that a cost of living increase is a variation in the compensation for their alleged services.

Not that I want to be in the position of defending politicians...

but you guys are a bit hasty in your blanket condemnations and it is causing you all to be rather loose with the facts.

If I understand correctly the COLA is an automatic raise that is already law. Under the current "contract" that the congresspeople work under, they are due this raise.

The honorable senator is asking to change the law to stop a benefit they already have. This has nothing to do with congressmen asking for more. This is why the 27th Amendment doesn't apply.

This is at base a workers rights issue....

I beg to differ, read the article again, carefully . . .