Adam Smith: “Mr. McINTOSH. Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me point out that legislation has been introduced to end this automatic pay…”

“Mr. McINTOSH. Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me point out that legislation has been introduced to end this automatic pay increase for Congress. In fact, one of my good friends, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Solomon], is a cosponsor of that, but for some reason, it has not been on the floor of this House for a vote. So to say that there are other ways to do this, I think, is somewhat disingenuous. For the record, Members of Congress earn $133,000 each year. The COLA that we are talking about is a $3,000 pay increase that would go into effect next year, and my problem with this process is that there is too much unfinished business in this House for us to vote a pay increase for ourselves. Many said it is merely a COLA, just like Social Security has a COLA. Well, Social Security still is not secure, because we are stealing from that trust fund to pay for the cost of Government. They say it is just like the COLA in capital gains, but we failed to pass a COLA for capital gains. It was not indexed in our tax cut. They say it is just like the COLA for veterans, but we still have not made up the lost ground to our veterans from the Clinton cut in their COLA. So there is too much unfinished business in this Congress for us to be passing a pay raise.”