Dem Leader Rejects Congressional Pay Freeze Until Budget Is Balanced
Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 5:02 AM
Well this makes sense. If you’re a political hack trying to squeeze every last dime out of taxpayers while you’re in public office.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Dem-Md.) says he rejects the idea of freezing Congressional pay until Congress can balance a budget. Earlier this week Obama and democrats proposed a record $3.8 Trillion spending bill for the second year in a row that will result in a record budget deficit for the second year in a row.
CNSNews reported:
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) rejected the idea of continuing a congressional pay freeze until Congress can balance the budget, saying that it would take “a long time” until the budget might be balanced – too long, he said, for Congress to go without a pay raise.
Speaking to reporters at his weekly press briefing, Hoyer explained that Congress had already frozen its pay by rejecting a cost of living increase. However, extending that freeze was too much for Hoyer to support.
CNSNews.com: Are you willing to continue the freeze on congressional pay beyond this year and until the budget gets balanced?
Hoyer: “I’m sure that Congress will be willing to consider it. First of all, as you know, in order for there to be a pay raise, you need to have a vote. Cost of living adjustments are perceived differently by the courts and by the law. So you’re really talking about cost of living adjustments. We froze the cost of living adjustments this year, and I’m sure we’ll consider that again.
CNSNews.com: But do you support it?
Hoyer: I’ve not been a big supporter of it, if you’re talking about in terms of freezing until we balance the budget – that’s a long time. I think that that’s further ahead than I want to plan.
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Dell commented:
Hoyer thinks federal employees – and Congress – needs a pay raise? Damn! I was thinking they need a pay CUT. Something equal to their refusal to give Social Security recipients a cost of living increase this year….for the first time in like EVAH.
Chisum commented:
They have zero intention of balancing the budget. Their dishonesty regarding debt and deficits is stunning.
Obama’s Deficit Dishonesty!
Dems try to claim it was Bush’s deficit yet they want to use recovered TARP funds for another Obama slush fund!
BEHIND OBAMA’S PHONY DEFICIT NUMBERS
By Dick Morris
Here are the facts:
In 2008, Bush ran a deficit of $485 billion. By the time the fiscal year started on October 1, 2008, it had gone up by another $100 billion due to increased recession-related spending and depressed revenues. So it was about $600 billion at the start of the fiscal crisis. That was the real Bush deficit.
But when the fiscal crisis hit, Bush had to pass TARP in the final months of his presidency which cost $700 billion. Under the federal budget rules, a loan and a grant are treated the same. So the $700 billion pushed the deficit — officially — up to $1.3 trillion. But not really. The $700 billion was a short term loan. $500 billion of it has already been repaid.
So what was the real deficit Obama inherited? The $600 billion deficit Bush was running plus the $200 billion of TARP money that probably won’t be repaid (mainly AIG and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). That totals $800 billion. That was the real deficit Obama inherited.
http://www.floppingaces.net/2010/02/02/obamas-deficit-dishonesty/
Inge commented:
What hypocracy! These people make insane amounts of money plus all the other little goodies.
There was NO increase in Social Secuiryt this year, with an insert saying “The cost of lving has decreased, no increase this thear). the same with military retirement pay!
But yet, these b*astards feel they deserve a raise!
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drjohn commented:
There are no SS COLA’s this year or next, but Congress still gets a raise for its miserable performance?
What’s wrong with this picture?
Harry Schell commented:
Please, Steny, sir, could I have a little more, too?
It’s been five years, and I make 60% of what I did in 1995 now. Nobody around me has had a raise in as long as 10 years, no less than three.
And we pay your salaries, bub.
AuntieMadder commented:
Like the commenters above posted, Congressional pay raises shouldn’t even be on the table right now. They should “tighten their belts” like the rest of us.
timajin commented:
Of course, let’s reward INCOMPETENCE!! The Dems don’t get it and neither does the president or his administration. The FACT that a leader would say something to the effect that government just can’t keep spending like it has one day, and contradict that the very next is the epitome of INCOMPETENCE! The budget he announced for 2010 is incredibly stupid and demonstrates his complete LACK OF RESPECT FOR EVERYDAY AMERICANS!
If I told my BOSS that I understood a mistake and wouldn’t do it again, then went right ahead and did it, I’d get FIRED. Well it’s time for the BOSS to FIRE this guy. By the BOSS, I mean you and me. The “WE” in “We The People…” I do hereby call for the immediate impeachment of the president. This country CANNOT AFFORD three more years of this insanity.
bg commented:
++
watched a bit of the Timothy Geithner tit for tats with
the Finance Committee on c-span via pbs last night..
Olympia Snowe (R-SD) & Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) were 2 of those who kept shaking their heads in disbelief about what’s in the bill as well as Geithners responses..
oh yeah, even Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont looked befuddled & albeit not outright, more or less chastised Geithner about the seriousness of this..
==
bg commented:
++
i don’t see why they can’t schedule “pay raises” at the approval of their boss “we the people” every 3 to 5 years seeing as how they’ve awarded themselves a pay raise every year up to & including 9/11 & every year since w/o any approval whatsoever.. iow: they want to co0ntrol US, yet they can’t even seem to cannot control themselves.. but who’s fault is that?? albeit almost gone unnoticed until now, have not “we the people” more or less relinquished our power to the Govt, namely in the order of Congress, Judiciary & President (not to mention the MSM et al)??
TERM LIMITS & SCHEDULED PAY RAISES!!
WE THE PEOPLE ARE THE BOSS OF OUR
GOVT.. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!!
==
bg commented:
++
re: bg #12
uhg, forgot to edit..
[iow: they want to co0ntrol US, yet they can’t
even seem to cannot control themselves..]
should have read..
iow: they want to control US, yet they
can’t even seem to control themselves..
==
bg commented:
++
timajin @ 12:38 pm #10
deliberate fundamental changes orchestrated
via manufactured crisis is not incompetence..
==
vsatt commented:
Wonder if my husband can try that approach with his boss: “Gee sir, it may be awhile before sales are back up. That’s just too long to go without a raise.”
How long do you think it would be before dh was hitting the unemployment line?
JollyR commented:
And these clowns wonder why the American people are mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore. Thank god for the internet so we can expose these dirt bags to a wider audience because MSM sure wont.
Elly commented:
But wait.. what about all that cutting back erm… wealth redistribution??? riggggghhhhht, what’s proposedly good for us apparently isn’t for them.
Remember that ~