House members reward themselves again

I see that the House voted to give themselves a raise for the seventh straight year. It must be nice to have the freedom to vote on whether you get a raise and what that raise will be.

In the real world, an employee generally doesn't get a raise/bonus if his employer is not making money. Hmmm...does the US have a budget surplus that none of us have heard about? Sadly, no -- we have record deficits. And when a company's finances are as poorly mismanaged as those of our government, they not only do not give raises or bonuses, but they also have mass layoffs and often have to shutter their doors. Still, though, the House made sure to take an additional scoop of greenbacks out of the nation's treasury yet again.

Perhaps I'm being too quick to judge. They did only give themselves a 2% raise. But 2% of a way-too-high-already-for-the-job-they-are-doing salary is still a lot of money. In this case, the raise amounts to a tidy sum of $3300. $3300 in additional salary is a lot of money to most of us peons.

Of course, the members of Congress have financial needs or desires. What could $3300 a year buy for them? Well, let's think about it:

• $3300 could pay for a vacation to Europe or Africa or Australia. Oh, wait a minute, they already get those free from favor-hungry lobbyists. Scratch that.
• Well, they could use the $3300 to pay for their kids' braces. Wait, they probably already get those for free because they have better health benefits than the rest of the country while doing basically nothing to help reduce the health costs for the rest of us "consumers" out here in the wildnerness.
• Oh, I've got it. They could use that extra $3300 to add to their pensions. Of course, they do already have ridiculously generous pensions while, of course, they pass lobbyist-influenced bills that restrict pensions for the rest of us. So...the additional $$ won't matter much at all.

Okay, so maybe they don't really NEED the money. It looks like they already have a pretty good gig. But even if they don't NEED it, don't they DESERVE the money? Let me see...

• Perhaps they deserve it because they work so hard. Oops, I forgot that they have more recesses than the entire country's elementary schools combined. Scratch this one, too.
• Okay, I've got it. They deserve it because they fight so hard for "we, the people". Well, that doesn't exactly add up. From what I can tell, they care much more about what corporations (Repubs) and special interests (Dems) want than what us "common folk" want. (NOTE: On a positive note, the Repub stance of illegal immigration is a single, but notable exception).
• Maybe they deserve it because they could make so much more out in the real world. Most of them are lawyers and business owners, anyway, so they are making a big sacrifice to take a paltry salary of $165K. Accordingly, we should be glad to hand over the additional $$, right? Well, I don't think so. If someone feels slighted by a salary of $165K, they should NOT be representing the public because they simply cannot relate sufficiently to John and Jane Doe.

In the real world (you know, "Outside the Beltway"), a person's raise or bonus is normally decided by his boss -- the one who hired him or continues to keep him on the payroll. We (the People) vote the House members into office. In that respect, aren't we their bosses? Aren't we the ones who decide if they keep their jobs? If so, shouldn't we be the ones who decide whether the House members get a raise and what that raise, if any, should be? I say that we should have a national referendum at every election to determine what the representatives' salaries should be. That only seems fair, right? I know -- wishful thinking.

Sadly, we not only get a healthy dose of taxation with minimal representation, but we also get the "privilege" of paying them more and more each year for their non-services. Alas, this is the world we live in. What are you going to do?

Well, I have a solution. It's a simple one. Vote out the incumbents. Vote against them in primaries. Vote against them in general elections. Send them a message. Let them know that we are still the ones who ultimately put them into or kick them out of office. Then maybe we can start over with some Representatives who...well...represent us.

I know it sounds half-baked, but it's just crazy enough to work.