oh congress!

Congress Decides Now Is Not the Time to Give Themselves a Raise

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 24: The U.S. Capitol building stands prior to U.S. President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech on January 24, 2012 in Washington, DC. Obama said the focal point his speech is the central mission of our country, and his central focus as president, including
Photo: Mark Wilson/2012 Getty Images

At a fundraiser for Democratic candidates in Houston on Wednesday evening, President Obama described the current Congress as “the least productive…in modern history,” and called for a “Congress that works, not one that marches in lockstep.” He didn’t get a chance to call them greedy too, since just hours earlier the House Appropriations Committee rejected retiring Representative Jim Moran’s plan to offer his fellow legislators $25 a day, on top of their $174,000 annual salary. The Virginia Democrat said members of Congress should get a raise because high rents in D.C. will make the body a bastion of the wealthy, not because they deserve it. Still, it’s clear that’s not what the country wants to hear right now. Moran says that since he raised the idea last week, his office has been deluged with angry phone calls, “almost all of them using obscene language.”

Congress Votes to Deny Themselves a Raise