What A Surprise!

This from the Washington Post:
House Grudgingly Accepts a Pay Raise, as Usual By Lois Romano

Democrats have for weeks been privately wringing their hands over whether to accept an automatic 2.5 percent pay increase, fretting that the raise may appear inconsistent with their campaign promises.

But last night, the House made its peace with it, rejecting a bid to block the automatic cost-of-living raise of about $4,400 on a 244 to 181 vote.

. . . Majority Leader Steny Hoyer supported accepting a bump . . . since the Democrats kept their word by quickly pushing through the first federal minimum-wage increase in nearly a decade after taking power in January.

But Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel-- ever conscious of ensuring that Democrats stay in power -- was said to be a bit skittish about it, because Democrats made the raise a big issue during the elections. The Illinois congressman has long donated his salary increases to charity.

The cost-of-living increases for Congress are automatic by permanent law, and have for years been in the fine print of an appropriations bill. . . . Having the measure lumped with other legislation insulates the members from specifically voting on a raise just for themselves.
Members must actively vote to block the raise to stop it.
Click here for the complete text.
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Leave it to Congress to make a law that they get an automatic raise. Don't you wish you could do the same?
And their ingenuity knows no bounds when it comes to things they WANT to do: they wring their hands in public, then quietly, privately, do nothing--thus giving themselves the raise.

I wish they wanted to rescue the country from Cheney.