Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 2, 1994 TAG: 9402160005
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH NADER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
One important question for the future of our modest democracy is this: Into which camp will the members of Congress go? Will they be paid amounts similar to the small group of elite rich, or will they be compensated more in line with the vast majority of hard-working U.S. taxpayers? The answer to this question was given in an alarming new report by the Congressional Accountability Project. Here's what they found:
Congress voted itself a $65,000 pay raise beyond inflation since 1955, in constant 1993 dollars.
Congress voted itself a $36,000 raise beyond inflation since 1981, in constant 1993 dollars.
Compare this to pay trends for ordinary Americans:
No growth in median family income: In 1972, the U.S. median family income was $38,760 in 1993 dollars. In 1992, the median family income had slipped to $38,266 in 1993 dollars.
No growth in median individual income: The U.S. median individual income has fallen from the 1968 level of $15,782 in 1993 dollars, to the 1992 level of $15,629 in 1993 dollars.
No growth in median male wage: For males, in 1963, the median income was $21,492 in 1993 dollars. In 1993, median male income had dropped to $21,470 in 1993 dollars.
The economic gap between the political rulers and the ruled in the United States is widening:
In 1981, the difference between the congressional individual salary and the U.S. median family income was $61,388 in 1993 dollars. But in 1992, this gap had grown to $96,349 in 1993 dollars, which is an increase of 57 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars.
In 1981, the gap between the congressional salary and the U.S. median annual individual income was $83,611 in 1993 dollars. In 1992, the difference between them had risen to $118,986 in 1993 dollars, which is an increase of 42 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars. When benefits are added, the gap is much wider yet.
This has manifold and serious implications for our democracy. When members of Congress become economically distant from ordinary citizens, their ability to empathize with the economic difficulty and pain of ordinary Americans atrophies. Legislators become more likely to do the bidding of economic elites at the expense of the vast majority of citizens and taxpayers. They undermine their moral authority to govern.
Public cynicism grows as citizens observe members of Congress living in regal comfort with funds provided by the federal government. At a time of service cutbacks, a huge budget deficit and no family income growth, most of the U.S. public understands high congressional salaries as leadership by hypocrisy, not example, and wants cuts in congressional pay. An April 1993 public opinion survey found that congressional pay cuts were the most popular of 38 government reform measures, winning the support of 80 percent of Americans, with only 11 percent opposed.
This is no surprise given that members of Congress receive a $133,600 annual salary, very generous pensions and large sums of hidden income in the form of perks, frivolous foreign travel and junkets, expense accounts to pay for meals, liquor, hotel accommodations, taxis, first-class air travel, and other benefits such as taxpayer-subsidized medical insurance and life insurance, and a special $3,000 annual tax deduction as a home allowance.
Members of Congress should not have voted themselves whopping pay increases given the failure of the U.S. economy to produce income growth for ordinary Americans. In order to regain their moral authority to govern, members of Congress should support a cut in congressional pay. Legislation (HR 212) sponsored by Rep. Andrew Jacobs, D-Ind., and a group of bipartisan representatives would reduce congressional pay from $133,600 to $89,500 - the 1989 pay raise level.
Americans yearn for leadership by example. In 1932 and 1933, Congress voted itself two pay cuts in order to set a good example for a nation in the throes of the Depression. Will members of Congress show the same leadership in 1994?
\ Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate, heads the Congressional Accountability Project.
\ Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service
by CNB