February 6, 2009 - 5:23 PM
Members of Congress Should Tighten their Belts as Well
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Posted by: Sen. Richard Burr
The “stimulus” bill being debated in the Senate this week has set new lows for out of control federal government spending: a price tag near $1 trillion (and climbing), little transparency, and questionable stimulative effect. It’s easy for Members of Congress to spend the people’s money without much thought to the overall cost--just look at congressional pay. As the law is currently written, Congress has to hold a vote to disapprove an automatic pay raise. As you can guess, these votes don’t occur too often. In fact, a raise has only been disapproved once since 2000, and only six times total since the law was established in 1975. To help bring some perspective to those who are crafting the law, I am introducing an amendment to the “stimulus” legislation that would eliminate automatic congressional pay adjustments. With every American family tightening belts in these tough times, Congress needs to follow suit.