Doesnt this give you the warm and fuzzies?

Congress Hasn't Fixed The Budget Yet, Getting A Raise Anyway
Comment Now
Follow Comments
US President Barack Obama (5th L) takes part i...

US President Barack Obama (5th L) takes part in a meeting with congressional leaders on the budget deficit July 14, 2011 in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC. From left (clockwise): House Minority Whip Representative Steny Hoyer, D-MD, House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor, R-VA, House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, House Speaker John Boehner, R-OH, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-IL, and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-AZ. (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)

If you’ve been worried about what will happen to those poor folks in Congress once the tax increases hit, worry no more: they’re getting a raise!

Yes, despite the fact that the current Congress is the one of the most ineffectual in recent memory, President Obama signed an executive order boosting their pay after March 27. I guess that assumes we haven’t run out of money since Secretary Geithner has indicated a few days ago that we only have about two months of headroom in 2013 (assuming we take some drastic measures).
White House Sets Deadline For Budget Vote Kelly Phillips Erb Kelly Phillips Erb Contributor
Obama, Boehner, Reid Pass Budget Blame While Taxpayers Wonder: Who's On First? Kelly Phillips Erb Kelly Phillips Erb Contributor
Treasury Advises That U.S. Will Hit Its Debt Limit In 5 Days Kelly Phillips Erb Kelly Phillips Erb Contributor

And since, by law, Congress can’t get more of a raise than federal workers, those folks are getting one, too (that sound you hear is the rearranging of deck chairs). Assuming $152,625,000,000 in annual pay to federal workers (2,035,000 federal employees making an average of close to $75,000 – not including benefits which would have bumped the figure to more than $100,000), that works out to a planned increase of $763,125,000.

How much will the Congressional raise cost us? The bump is .5% which means that the average Congressional official making $174,000 per year will see an extra $900 in their 2013 paycheck. At 535 members of Congress, that works out to just under $500,000 (with a little cushion room for Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) all of whom get more than the average and thus, will get a bigger raise than $900 for the year).

We won’t miss a half million dollars in a $3 trillion budget, right?

Besides, Congress has been vacationing and recessing pretty hard this year. Consider this: the seven week break for the elections? The one that followed Congress’ five week summer break? At $3,480 per week for seven weeks, taxpayers paid $13,032,600 for just one recess, not including staff and benefits. The five week summer break tacked on another $9,390,000. So we paid more than $20,000,000 for Congress not to work for most of the summer and fall, not including federal holidays and the like. What’s an extra half million?

Cause that’s the way it works at your place of employment, right? You get nothing done, take lots of vacation, leave work early and you get a raise?

I thought so.

We have to purposly wreck the American train so we can rebuild it to something else more to our liking. << thats what it looks like to me from here.

Rewarding extraordinary incompetency....what's new ?

TEOTWAWKI wrote:Rewarding extraordinary incompetency....what's new ?

Evidently, this raise applies to ALL federal employees so yes, you are very correct.

I cannot believe it that we're giving out raises... I don't give a chit if has been a year or two or ten since their last raise.. We cannot afford it. Social Security didn't have to be raised either.

Unfortunately, the Fiscal Cliff isn't austere enough. Yeah it is going to hurt, but we have been living off borrowed money for too long... duh!

And DAMMIT, do NOT raise the ceiling again.

What a bunch of crap! This really pisses me off, dammit!

Related but on a bit of a lighter note, see below, credit to EE for sharing:

Yomama wrote:I cannot believe it that we're giving out raises... I don't give a chit if has been a year or two or ten since their last raise.. We cannot afford it. Social Security didn't have to be raised either.

Unfortunately, the Fiscal Cliff isn't austere enough. Yeah it is going to hurt, but we have been living off borrowed money for too long... duh!

And DAMMIT, do NOT raise the ceiling again.

In reference to your bolded statement above, there were either two or three years (I now forget) while I worked for GE when NO ONE got raises, not even upper management or Top Talent, which I was rated as. It sucked because while Wind was very profitable, Energy was in a downturn because the Oil & Gas bubble had burst... so we all paid the price. In previous years, I'd gotten 11 - 13% raises, so it was quite a shock.

Since Obama and Immelt are so goddamn tight, maybe Immelt should teach Obama a thing or two about managing finance in a downturn. Or in this case, a total fucking shitstorm.

We may please ourselves with the prospect of free and popular governments. But there is great danger that those governments will not make us happy. God grant they may. But I fear that in every assembly, members will obtain an influence by noise, not sense. By meanness, not greatness. By ignorance, not learning. By contracted hearts, not large souls.”
― John Adams