Russ Feingold: “Over the years, Members of Congress have had a lot of perks, but one of them stands out; that is, the ability to raise…”

“Over the years, Members of Congress have had a lot of perks, but one of them stands out; that is, the ability to raise their own pay. Not many Americans have the power to give themselves a raise whenever they want, no matter how they are performing. To make it worse, Members do not even have to vote on this pay raise. Congress has set up a system whereby every year Members automatically get a pay raise. No one has to lift a finger. I do not take these pay raises, and I have been fighting for years to pass my bill to end this cozy system. Thanks to the majority leader, we took an important step last year when the Senate passed legislation to end automatic annual pay raises for Members of Congress. Unfortunately, the leadership of the other body has, so far, refused to take up that bill. Well, I am going to keep fighting to pass it, but there is another step we can take in the meantime; that is, to make sure we do not get a pay raise next year. We already enacted legislation to block a pay raise this year, and now we have to do the same thing for 2011. With so many Americans looking for jobs and trying to figure out how to pay their bills, now is no time to give ourselves a taxpayer-funded $1,600 pay increase.”