To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Stop Automatic Pay Raises for Congress and the President
Hidden in Gringrich's Contract With America was a law that ended Congress having to vote publicly before any pay increases. Instead, the law granted automatic yearly COLA-based pay raises for Congress and the President. The American taxpayer is seeing our economy crumble and having to face a future of decreasing incomes while members of Congress and the President can do nothing and still get a yearly automatic pay raise. We must petition Congress to return to the process of having to vote in public for each and any pay raises so that We The People can start to gain control of our Representatives and tie pay increases to performance, just like we in the private sector have to do before we get any income raises.
Why is this important?
Before the passage of "CONTRACT WITH AMERICA," Newt Gringrich's conservative doctrine of promises, Congress had to vote for any pay raises. Hidden within the Contract With America was a law to end that practice and to give Congress and the President automatic pay raises based on COLA. Instead of voting to get a pay raise, Congress now just has to vote to stop an automatic yearly pay raise--something they have not done once.
Middle Class American's are hurting and losing jobs to overseas countries. Some of the off-shoring of jobs is actually promoted by these same companies being able to deduct the moving expenses to go off-shore and overseas. Meanwhile, Congress and the President keep getting automatic COLA raises every year. Middle Class American's do not work in any job that provides an automatic pay increase. Why should members of Congress and the President be given such a blessing of the American taxpayer? Congress' approval rating is the lowest in history--meaning they are not working FOR the American people in any significant way. Yet, again, Congress keeps getting a COLA-based income raise yearly. Members of Congress spend more time out of Washington raising more and more money for their own re-election, which means they spend less and less time in Washington passing laws and bringing jobs back to hard-working deserving American taxpayers who actually pay the salary of these members of Congress.
This has got to stop! The American taxpayer needs to remind each member of Congress that they work for us--not for the corporations, not the Lobbyists, not the Special Interests. The American taxpayer needs to end Congressional and Presidential automatic pay increases and demand that Congress return to the very public and open system in place ever since our nation's founding: that is, having to VOTE for their pay increases. The gravy train has long ended for the average Middle Class taxpayer (if there ever was such a time for the average taxpayer/worker in America), and it is time that Congress and the President feel the strain of living on ever decreasing incomes that "We The People" have now come to learn to do as our economy crumbles due to policies written in Congress to encourage off-shoring of American jobs. It is time "We The People" end the gravy train for members of Congress and the President that the Contract With America put in to place and to petition our members of Congress to end all automatic pay increases and return to voting for each and any pay increase.
Middle Class American's are hurting and losing jobs to overseas countries. Some of the off-shoring of jobs is actually promoted by these same companies being able to deduct the moving expenses to go off-shore and overseas. Meanwhile, Congress and the President keep getting automatic COLA raises every year. Middle Class American's do not work in any job that provides an automatic pay increase. Why should members of Congress and the President be given such a blessing of the American taxpayer? Congress' approval rating is the lowest in history--meaning they are not working FOR the American people in any significant way. Yet, again, Congress keeps getting a COLA-based income raise yearly. Members of Congress spend more time out of Washington raising more and more money for their own re-election, which means they spend less and less time in Washington passing laws and bringing jobs back to hard-working deserving American taxpayers who actually pay the salary of these members of Congress.
This has got to stop! The American taxpayer needs to remind each member of Congress that they work for us--not for the corporations, not the Lobbyists, not the Special Interests. The American taxpayer needs to end Congressional and Presidential automatic pay increases and demand that Congress return to the very public and open system in place ever since our nation's founding: that is, having to VOTE for their pay increases. The gravy train has long ended for the average Middle Class taxpayer (if there ever was such a time for the average taxpayer/worker in America), and it is time that Congress and the President feel the strain of living on ever decreasing incomes that "We The People" have now come to learn to do as our economy crumbles due to policies written in Congress to encourage off-shoring of American jobs. It is time "We The People" end the gravy train for members of Congress and the President that the Contract With America put in to place and to petition our members of Congress to end all automatic pay increases and return to voting for each and any pay increase.