War, Recession, Deficits Fail to Deter Self-Aggrandizement

(Washington, D.C.) – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today denounced Congress upon final passage of its latest salary increase.   The increase of almost $5,000 will bring congressional compensation to a total of $154,700 per year.  In 1989 Congress granted itself automatic “cost of living” increases every year, unless there is a specific vote to cancel it. 

To his credit, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) proposed a measure to stop this year’s increase.  Yesterday, the Senate voted 58-36 to reject the Feingold measure and clear the way for the pay hike.  The House took similar steps in July.  Fiscal 2003 will make four years in a row that Congress has refused to turn down its pay hike. 

“Members of Congress have the only job in the country whose occupants can set their own salary without regard to performance, profit, or economic climate,” CCAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “After a year when Congress could not pass appropriations bills, left scores of judicial and executive branch appointments unconfirmed, and refused to act on overdue reforms for Social Security, Medicare, the tax code, Amtrak, and the US Postal Service, a pay raise is an insult to taxpayers.”

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), four years of budget surplus will plummet to a $157 billion deficit by year’s end.  Successive deficits will add hundreds of billions more to the national debt, already looming at $6.2 trillion.  The recent stock market drop has cut the retirement savings of millions of Americans, and unemployment is rising.  Finally, the nation’s war on terrorism and a possible invasion of Iraq will place even greater strains on the government’s resources. 

“The average family’s share of the national debt amounts to $20,000,” continued Schatz.  “This burden is the direct result of partisan politics, reckless spending, and budget shenanigans in Washington.  And now the politicians who created this problem want a pay raise.  What exactly are they rewarding themselves for?”

Senators and representatives earn four times the median income of full-time, year-round American male workers, excluding benefits and pensions.  Over the past five years, members of Congress have given themselves $13,300 in raises, which is more than a minimum wage employee would earn during an entire year of full-time work.  Other perks include: free outpatient care at certain hospitals, a special $3,000 tax deduction, frequent-flyer miles from government travel, meals and vacations from lobbyists and business groups, access to taxpayer provided first-class gyms and tennis courts, subsidized life and health insurance, and a special pension program.

“Congressional pay raises keep coming despite Congress’s failure to do its job,” concluded Schatz. “Since 9/11, there has been a lot of talk about sacrifice.  But politicians are unwilling to give up a penny of their pay raise, to say nothing of the $20 billion in pork they smuggled to their home districts, or the $159 billion in waste and abuse they allowed to be spent last year.” 

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest (one million members and supporters) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.