The Democrats are well known for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and they are living up to their advanced billing. In an astounding tone-deaf political move, Nancy Pelosi and her gang are trying to sneak in a Congressional pay raise in a huge spending bill.
What a gift to President Trump and the GOP… and Ben Sasse already pounced. “These jokers couldn’t hold down a summer job at Dairy Queen pulling this kinda crap,” he said when he heard the news.
The Washington Examiner reported that House Democrats are pushing for the first congressional pay raise in ten years, a politically fraught issue that may face populist opposition from lawmakers in both parties.
A $1 trillion spending package to provide cover for a number of departments and agencies, now making its way through Congress, would give House members and senators a $4,500 bump-up from their annual salaries of $174,000, as reported by Politico.
Under U.S. federal law, members of Congress get annual cost-of-living increases on par with other federal employees, that’s unless they vote to deny themselves the raise. That has occurred each year over the past decade, a practice that began during the depths of the Great Recession, when lawmakers did not want to appear to line their own pockets while constituents suffered.
Evan Hollander, a spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, claimied that the congressional pay raise is justified.
“There is strong bipartisan support for these modern inflation adjustments,” Hollander said.
Had lawmakers taken raises available each year over the past decade, salaries would now be $208,000 per year, according to Bloomberg.
House Majority Leader Steney Hoyer is a major proponent of a congressional pay raise. His district stretches from the Washington suburbs of Prince George’s County, Md., to rural areas farther out. He is one of the few lawmakers relatively local to the Capitol who doesn’t need a second home in the expensive Washington, housing market.
“I don’t think there is ever a time when people think it’s very good politically to do,” Hoyer stated recently.
However, boosting congressional pay has already encountered Republican opposition. on Tuesday, Sen. Ben Sasse, spoke strongly against the pay raise. “These jokers couldn’t hold down a summer job at Dairy Queen pulling this kinda crap,” Sasse said.
“I think the American people would think that Congress ought to earn it first,” said Richard Shelby, R-Ala., Senate Appropriations chairman.
