Jon Kyl: “When you talk about percentage increases, I start to smile. You can always make a point with a percentage. I can…”

“When you talk about percentage increases, I start to smile. You can always make a point with a percentage. I can remember when I was an associate in a law firm and I would be making, let's say, a salary of $25,000 a year. The senior partner was making $150,000 a year. We both get a 3-percent increase in our salary and he would say: That is fair. In fact, I will tell you what; I will take a 3-percent increase and I will give you a 4-percent increase. At first, I would say that sounds all right. Then I said, wait a minute, you get 3 percent on $150,000 and I get 4 percent on $25,000. I think the gap is widening, not narrowing here. When I got to be more of a senior person in the law firm--and certainly with my Senate staff now, I always try to give the people at the bottom a higher percentage. Otherwise, the gap continues to widen. We see on the chart here how bad the pink or red numbers are, where Arizona is today. It is deceptive to suggest that since we are going up, we ought to be happy.”