Congress vs. America: How Congress Raises Its Own Pay

Publication Date: December 1989

Publisher: Heritage Foundation (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): Stephen Moore

Research Area: Government

Keywords: Government reform

Type: Report

Abstract:

The overwhelming public opposition to raising congressional pay is an unmistakable signal of Americans’ displeasure with the performance of Congress as an institution. Taxpayers rightly do not believe they are receiving value for their money from the legislative branch. Only when lawmakers start to eliminate wasteful spending and discipline themselves to comply with their self-imposed Gram-Rudman-Hollings deficit reduction timetable that is supposed to achieve a balanced budget by 1993 will taxpayers regard a congressional pay raise as money well spent.