The question of whether to give Congress its pay raise has created a conflict-one, however, that I believe can be resolved easily.
Its advocates claimed that Congress deserves a raise of 51 percent because inflation has reduced their (as well as our) real income by a very substantial sum since their last raise. Opponents claimed, very plausibly, that Congress does not deserve any kind of a raise at all, since not only have they failed to protect the earning power of the American citizen, but they have been the direct cause of the inflation that has so severely eroded all of our earning powers.
I would like to make the following suggestions:
1. Give Congress its raise. They need it. And if they don`t get it, they will serve us even more poorly than they have in the past.
2. Index their pay to inflation. Here`s the index: Annually, for every percent that inflation goes up, Congress gets the same percent cut from their pay.
Folks, we`d see a religious experience from D.C. that you gave up praying for years ago.
This has been the easy part. Hog-tying and branding them rascals with it will be the hard part.
