After taking the global economy hostage to secure painful cuts to aid programs and other federal spending, House Republicans are proposing a pay raise for themselves and other members of Congress for the coming fiscal year.
Roll Callreported Thursday that under spending legislation approved by the Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee last month, members of Congress “would stand to receive a 4.6%, or $8,000, pay increase” in 2024. Most members of Congress currently make an annual salary of $174,000, putting them in the top 10% of U.S. earners.
“Lawmakers last received a cost-of-living increase in 2009,” the outlet noted, “but House Republicans left out the traditional language blocking a cost-of-living increase for members from this year’s Legislative Branch bill.”
Pulling themselves up by our bootstraps.
We need to pay people in Congress enough to live comfortably in their district and to have a place in DC. If we don’t, the only people that can afford to be in Congress are rich already…which is generally what we have now.
But we do provide them enough to be comfortable. They get six figs and I think a bunch of comps, so they’re doing pretty well.
I do agree that they need to be comfortable, but their income shouldn’t rely on whatever the previous Congress decided to pass, it should rely on how well the average person is doing. So I think we should tie Congressional salaries to the median household income. If the median household income goes up, their income should go up, which would hopefully encourage them to pass laws that benefit the poor and middle class instead of the wealthy.
Comfortably? Nah. They should live in barracks just like the military. Public Service requires public servants.