A raise, sure...

How many of you would vote yourself a raise if you could? PUT YOUR HANDS DOWN! ;-) In fact, I’m willing to bet it is one of the few times no one in congress votes “present”. I will spend the next few days looking at the voting records to prove my point…as if I needed to.

“Unemployment is at its highest level in 15 years. Housing prices won't stop falling. The stock market has suffered its most punishing collapse since 1931, and shareholders have lost $7 trillion in wealth. Millions of workers have lost their jobs; millions more are worried about losing theirs. IRAs and 401k accounts have been decimated, and companies are halting their contributions to retirement plans. Retail sales are dragging, the credit markets have seized up, and worse is expected in 2009. The government has gone to unprecedented lengths to improve the economy, yet the economy keeps getting worse. The federal budget deficit is headed for a trillion dollars, and the national debt is well over $10 trillion — and climbing. The number of Americans saying the country is on the wrong track is at or near its all-time high; consumer confidence is at its all-time low.

So what do you do now?

Well, if you're a member of Congress, you give yourself a raise.

Beginning this week, US representatives and senators will be paid $174,000 a year. That represents an increase of $4,700 and the 10th time since 1998 that congressional pay has been given a boost.”(http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2159709/posts)

I personally think Congressional/Senate raises should be voted on by the public. Seriously, for the same reasons you don’t put a commissioned sales workforce in charge of reporting their own sales. Accountability at it’s best.

It’s amazing that Congress even feels they deserve a raise.

I don’t know about you, but I have to submit a review and meet with my manager to discuss my performance over the last year, then that manager gauges my performance with his allowable budget and determines what percentage of that budget is applied to my performance. I think it’s about time Washington started working in the real world.