Somewhat surprisingly, members of both parties are working to cut Congressional salaries. A number of representatives have introduced bills which would stop the automatic cost of living increases and scheduled raises for our federal legislators. Currently, such increases are automatic unless Congress decides to vote to halt them. It has been over 77 years since Congress took a pay cut and many Americans feel it's time, with the current economic conditions and the huge federal deficit.
Some representatives want to freeze scheduled increases while others actually want to see cuts, reports. Representative Nathan Deal (R-Ga) wants to see 5-10% pay cuts for Congress each year that the budgets is not balanced. This isn't the first time Deal has introduced such a bill but maybe the current attitude toward Washington and the bipartisan call for change will be the backing Deal needs to finally get this approved. Representative Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz) wants to skip the next COLA and decrease pay by $8,700. Other bills are out there, including ones which would get rid of COLAs, one that would freeze operating budgets for legislative offices and others.
This would be a wise decision for Congress, especially in an election year but not everyone supports these sensible measures. Steny Hoyer (D-Md), House Majority Leader, has stated that he doesn't support freezes. When asked by a CNS News reporter if he supports a Congressional pay freeze, Hoyer responded, "I’ve not been a big supporter of it, if you’re talking about in terms of freezing until we balance the budget – that’s a long time. I think that that’s further ahead than I want to plan."
Seems that Hoyer doesn't expect the budget to be balanced for a very long time, too long for our political leaders to make some small sacrifice. Americans seem to disagree. Hopefully the voters will show their displeasure in November.
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