Congress.
Amid all of the financial woes that are beating this country to its knees, the Congress of the United States of America thinks its doing such a bang-up job, that they approved a $4,700 per year pay increase for themselves.
I'm at a loss for words for once. Well, maybe not.
The $2.5 million that this increase will cost could be much better spent on many things. Tax cuts, paying down our ever-increasing debt, etc. How they could look the Big 3 automakers CEOs in the face and demand that they not take a salary when at the same time they INCREASE theirs is beyond me. All we've heard over the past few years is how corporate executives have been overcompensated. Do you have any idea what a CEO of a major corporation does in a day?
- Manage thousands of employees
- Answer to a board of directors
- Develop new concepts to increase production and profit
- Compete with other companies that would love to see them out of business
- Expand their products/services into new markets
- Create thousands of jobs
- Pay millions of dollars in personal and corporate taxes
- Testify before Congress
That's just scratching the surface. The responsibilities of these CEOs to keep their companies afloat so average people will have a job to go to everyday is staggering. Now, let's take a look at what an average Congressman/Senator does:
- Makes a speech to a Rotary Club
- Makes calls for fundraiser for re-election
- Makes a speech on the floor of the House or Senate
- Makes calls for fundraiser for re-election
- Attends fundraiser for re-election
- Manages staff of 15-20
- Makes calls for fundraiser for re-election
- Brings "home" taxpayer money for roads, bridges, fire houses, etc.
- Makes calls for fundraiser for re-election
- Asks grandstanding questions of CEOs at committee hearings
Whew! That's some hard work huh? Honestly, at approximately $170,000 per year, your average Congressman is seriously overpaid. I wonder which House member or Senator will do the right thing and not accept the increase? How long should I wait?
