Jerry Lewis: “I must say that the courage my colleague is demonstrating here is very important for the House to note. I am not…”

“I must say that the courage my colleague is demonstrating here is very important for the House to note. I am not surprised that our new Members are here opposing even a cost-of-living adjustment, for they have not been through the process of compromise and very, very difficult effort that was put together to make sense out of Members having to vote one way or another on their own pay. But I can tell my colleagues what they do not realize is that they really are cutting off the future opportunity of their families to have a decent standard of living over a significant period of time as they serve in the House. Above and beyond that, I think it is very fundamental for us all to understand this is a leadership issue. The gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Livingston] rose and spoke on this issue on the floor, the only Member of the leadership. The members need from time to time to be protected against themselves. Indeed, even the author of this amendment did not know the other day that we had not had a cost-of-living adjustment for 4 years in a row with this amendment. He was unaware of the impact that this is already having upon families across the place. Indeed we are leaving the House to people who are either born with a silver spoon in their mouth and they have got their own millions or people who could not get better jobs in the first place. That is not the direction the House needs to go in.”