See update below.
In the Strib's Hot Dish Politics, Kevin Diaz reports:
In the polar-opposites world of the U.S. Congress, there aren’t many 232-15 votes [sic] But when it comes to congressional pay raises amid hard times in the hinterlands, the majority of Democrats and all Republicans were more than ready to say thanks but no thanks [to a pay raise]. . . .
...Most senators and House members make about $174,000 a year, though leaders make much more. The last time Congress opted to take the raise was in 2008.
Actually, one Minnesota congressman has refused to take automatic raises--and returns earlier raises to the Treasury each year: Tim Walz. I checked with Congressman Walz's district director Meredith Salsbury to see if Walz was still refusing his raises.
She noted nothing had changed. Walz makes about $165,000, as Bluestem first reported in January 2008. I smiled at a passage at the end of that post:
We'd also like to remind readers that State Rep. Randy Demmer--who touts his own fiscal conservatism --took per diems for the two days in May when he was absent from doing the people's business in St. Paul while attending National Republican Congressional Committee Candidate school. (Demmer told the Rochester Post Bulletin that he only missed a few unimportant votes, but DJ dismantled that claim).
Update: A friend wonders why the Strib only includes the
Democratic votes in the item below, when the vote was actually 402-15,
as anyone clicking through the link to the roll call would learn.
Perhaps that's one of those mysteries writers learn at fine j-schools. I dare not say more , since any speculation about the competence of the crack reporters at the Strib would only fuel rumors that I totally lack professional courtesy.
Either that, or the Strib finally revealed a pro-Democratic bias. [end update].
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