Until congress puts american public before their special intrest ! They don't deserve a raise! If our taxes go up their taxes need to triple!

I am a veteran of the United States Marine Corps. I served and was honorably discharged in 1984, I along with hundred of other service men are asking that the Cold War Period be recognized as a viable period of military history. We served honorable and were willing to put on lived on the line at anytime if we were told too.

Congress passed the fewest number of bills in the history of the Congress in 2012. And their popularity amongst the American people is below 10%. And to cap it off, another die-hard dysfunctional display of childishness and immaturity over the fiscall cliff. No one in Congress cares about America; they only care about their political career. Therefore, in order to get their attention, we need some major pay and benefit changes.

The military budget is huge. Let's reduce military spending and bring our troops home from a few countries.

RID WASHINGTON OF WASTE.

WE spend 18% of our GDP (gross domestic product) on medical costs. They rest of the world spends between 6 and 8% of their GDP. We have the most inefficient expensive medical system in the world, and we cannot afford this system brought to us by the free market, We cannot compete with other countries who add 6 to 8% of GDP to product cost when we have to add 18% of our GDP to our product Cost. Medicare is not the problem outrageous medical costs are!!!!!!

There are 24 applications with one ALREADY approved to permit several Republican OIL & FINANCIAL corporates to STEAL "our very own" NON-POLLUTANT Natural Gas and SHIP IT OVERSEAS FOR PROFIT, WHILE WE ARE FORCED TO CONTINUE USING THEIR HIGHLY POLLUTANT GASOLINE that is DESTROYING OUR CLIMATE!

The entire country has been affected by their individual lack of consideration and empathy by their actions. I understand that a great many of them are millionaires already. Yet they continue to pay "chicken" with people' lives. GIVE THEM NO INCREASE - they haven's earned it!

My good friend and Union Brother and his young daughter have a Christmas miracle to share concerning the availability of health care, and the important role Unions play in providing Health Insurance for American workers.

I am a single mother who is raising a son who has aspergers and autism spectrum. I am a parent who wants to work while he is in school. I cannot find any employment with flexible hours. My child who wants to be in an intergrated classroom setting, but couldn't. No one in the schools, churches, family, or public services are willing to work with him. Many parents and I are feeling discriminated. There are some situations that can be overwhelming for a single parent or two parent families. We are asking people in the community to get help our children and to save our children. Those people have been ignored. That's exactly what happened to the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. I think about my son so much. I believe in the old saying, "It takes a village to raise a child". People are ignore that stategy. Just like what our former president, George W. Bush stated, "No child left behind".

The 1.5% pay raise given to Congress is a travesty. Members of Congress barely work half a week. Due to their entrenched ideological positions and intranigence, they accomplish nearly nothing for the nation. They do not deserve an increase in salaries.

Issuing stock options as a major part of management compensation has led to three decades of short-term management approaches focused on the daily value of those options. This has led, in no small part, to the economic distress America is currently in. Banning stock options as compensation would help return a management style focused on long term profitability through growth as opposed to the devastating cost cutting which is the main focus today.