Fact Checking Claims About Congressional Pay

Social media posts claim members gave themselves a 21-percent raise.

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Viral social media posts claim that members of Congress have raised their pay by 21 percent in passing a recent bill.

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    Matt A

    RE: 27th Amendment

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    Pat Riot

    People in charge of a large staff and representing over a million people shouldn't be paid the starting salary of a 22 year old google engineer just out of college. All this does is insure that only the rich and/or corrupt will run for Congress.

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    CynthiaW

    Increasing staff salaries seems reasonable, given the current inflation.

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      Josh Blumenthal

      So, 1) everyone should get a salary increase due to inflation? 2) If 1, than wouldn't that serve to create inflation by increasing demand as the stimulus payments did? 3) So, should we, as tax payers, have to fund a 21% budget increase for the people who can't control their spending? 4) Is there some reason they can't (and shouldn't have to) figure out how to manage like the rest of us and businesses everywhere?

      I'd support a reduction in Congressional spending on it's own operations and maybe tie any increase to them making government more efficient, starting with their own offices.

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        CynthiaW

        I get what you're saying, but I don't think Congressional staff budgets are even a rounding error in the big picture.

        My "solution" to inflation is a 2% hike in interest rates this month and another 2% in May. "Some people just want to watch the world burn."

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          Josh Blumenthal

          It isn't just about inflation. In fact, I see it more as irresponsibility and us having to sign off on it. Sure, it's a rounding error in the big picture, but that's not a reason to go along with it. We each have to adjust our budgets and I think most of us include curtailing small expenses. The real point is the mindset of spend, spend, spend and as a taxpayer I'm annoyed, annoyed, annoyed with having to support a Congress I often dislike in a manner not commensurate with what they do -- IMO. (I'm not claiming its humble.)

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            CynthiaW

            Yeah, I agree.

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