O-Bammm-a Nation, Social Security, and Congressional Pay Raises

It's a little difficult to add much to this picture. Just thought I'd throw the image in because it seems to express what oh, soooo many of us are feeling these days.

Were you aware that a pay raise is automatic for congressmen and senators? Yep, every year, they get a raise. And, a pretty good one, too. About four-grand a year.

Those raises are on auto-pilot. UNLESS. They take action to stop the automatic increase. As, thank goodness, they did for 2010 and 2011. It seems that the stop-raise-action was initiated by a couple democrats. Cool. Until you think about their motives. Their raitings in the tank, these 435 elected representatives we hired feel it's cost efficient for their re-election bids to dump the raises. Great PR, gives 'em something they can brag about back home. Cheaper than spending  money on campaign ads that spout out lie after lie after lie. They call them promises, but the realists among us know them as lies.

A couple of those congressmen even went so far as to propose pay cuts! Wouldn't that be special (a statement, not a question, hence no ?-mark). Their annual salaries are already $174-THOUSAND dollars a year! How does that make you feel? If you're on social security, trying to make ends meet with less than $20-thousand a year, I'll bet it doesn't set too well.

While their action is a token effort, the lawmakers should go further? It's high time to get rid of that salary for life benefit they have; it's past time to cut their fact finding junkets to exotic locations; it's TIME that our elected servants, our hired-help, learn to live on the same benefits that the rest of us get. Social security and medicare.

Oh, yeah...if the ObamaCareless plan isn't revised, medicare premiums will increase. From the $96 per month it was in 2009, in steps up to $117 per month in 2014. Not as huge, as some reports making the rounds of the internet claim. Perhaps, even fair. UNLESS! you're one of us on a fixed social security income. With no cost of living raises. If I could get $174-thousand per year for life, an extra $21 per month would be chicken feed. But, when you add that to the forever rising cost of gasoline, food, electricity, cable, haircuts (mine jumped ten percent this year), insurance...it doesn't take long for $1400 per month to get sucked up.

Maybe I should run for Congress. I could get elected, serve one two-year term, and rack up benefts and a huge salary for the rest of my life. Hey, I wouldn't want to change the racket, either. Maybe, just maybe, we should not leave it up to our elected representatives to decide what they should be getting. Doing so is akin to leaving the fox in charge of the hen house, don't-cha think?