Thursday, January 03, 2013

For Once Congressional Republicans Are Right And Obama Is Completely Wrong

>

Jeff Merkley

Obama is wrong often enough, but rarely does that coincide with the Republicans being right about the same issue. He may suck-- he does-- but they're even worse. He's always been a solid "D" or, at best, an occasional "C." The Republicans never rise beyond an "F." Never. Even when they stumble onto the right decision, it's always for the wrong reason. And that's what we're talking about today. Obama signed an Executive Order giving congressmembers a raise. A raise! Their salaries should be cut in half! The first sign I had of it was a tweet from progressive Oregon Senator Jeff Merkely:
"Congressional Pay Raise? Worst idea ever. Cut food stamps while boosting Senate salaries? No way!"
Fortunately, the Republicans agree that the idea of this lot getting a raise is obscene. Obama must be the most out-of-touch politician Inside-the-Beltway. These bums make $174,000, although the Speaker makes $223,500 and the 4 party leaders make $193,400 each-- have gigantically rich benefits packages and cushy retirement plans that no one else in America gets. On touch of that, most of them are corrupt and spend most of their energy feathering their own nests in countless schemes and scams.
GOP lawmakers are rushing to introduce legislation blocking a congressional pay increase authorized in a recent executive order signed by President Obama, as bipartisan backlash to the planned raise grows.

Reps. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) both came out with legislation opposing the executive order. Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) said in a release that he planned to introduce his own measure on Monday.

"I am introducing legislation to block Pres. Obama's exec order that gives Congress a pay raise. We need to cut spending not increase it," Bachmann tweeted on Monday afternoon.
Fitzpatrick's bill bars raises for his colleagues for 2013 and 2014. Jim Renacci is certainly one of the least deserving of anyone in Congress but he sure hit the nail on the head when he termed Obama's executive order "ridiculous" and "nothing short of irrational... Washington’s dysfunction doesn’t deserve a raise, it needs a hard dose of reality and I am happy to help supply it."

Several Republican senators are introducing similar legislation as well. Rob Portman (R-OH) is certainly an imbecile who bares more responsibility-- as Bush's Budget head-- for the nation's economic dysfunction. But he's another Republican that has figured out that public opinion would never back Obama on this one. "At a time when our country is facing record debt and trillion dollar deficits, the last thing Washington should do is reward itself with a pay increase. Until a long-term deficit reduction agreement is reached, we should not consider increasing the pay for Congress." How about never? And no COLAs.

Labels:

2 Comments:

At 6:28 AM, Blogger Bil said...

When I find myself agreeing with Bachmann, I start looking for Black suns & Red Moons....

 
At 7:09 AM, Blogger Minnesota Central said...


Just curious, do you know what the motivation was for President Obama and Congressional Republicans to take action ?

Remember that President Obama froze federal employees pay ... in fact, federal employees have not seen a cost of living increase in their paychecks in more than three years.
Because Congress had yet to set the federal government’s pay scale for 2013, President Obama issued an Executive Order allowing for salaries to increase ... since Members of Congress are Federal Employees, they would be eligible ... I do not know if by Executive Order, any President could exclude Members of Congress from an adjustment in pay and the 27th Amendment regarding Congressional Pay is not that clear.

While President Obama may have been trying to give raises for food inspectors, IRS employees, et al, the Senate "fiscal cliff" tax legislation includes language that would block a 0.5 percent cost of living pay increase for lawmakers, reversing parts of an executive order Obama. Since President Obama has signed the tax law, he apparently has no problem with freezing the wages of Members of Congress.

Now to the motivation of Congressional Republicans, they were quick to bring to the floor a bill that would freeze the salaries of lawmakers AND the nation’s 2 million federal employees for the remainder of fiscal 2013.

Please do not praise House Republicans for denying cost of living increases for ALL federal employees ... if they did that for employees over a certain grade, that would be an idea to consider, but not a blanket freeze.

IF, House Republicans were serious about cutting ineffective federal employees, I would suggest they look at House Committees. For example, The House Education and Workforce Committee has a budget of $16,158,348 (and that’s just the Committee staff … that does not include each Member or his/her staff) … and for all that money, Chairman Kline failed to hold floor votes on reforming Education (No Child Left Behind) or any other constructive piece of legislation during the 112th Congress ... There is a lot of waste ... on the hands of Republicans.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home