Raise Cain and Hell, Not Fat Cat Salaries

Fold my billfold and hold on to your purse, but believe it or not a federal commission has recommended pay increases for members of the U.S. Congress and for the President’s Cabinet of 60% to 80%. Under the proposal, salaries for members of Congress would go from $77,400 to $135,000; Cabinet secretaries from $88,800 to $160,000, deputies to $135,000, and federal district judges to $130,000 per year.

I thought these people were working for our country at least partially for patriotic reasons. And no mention is made of the lush fringe benefits accorded these government employees, including their pension programs, which exceed those available for most people slaving away in the private sector of our economy. . . .

Stockholders would raise the roof at their meetings if corporate executives tried to pull off big bonus deals after sustaining huge losses year after year. Now, it’s time for the citizen-voter-taxpayer to also raise the roof, raise Cain, raise hell, but not salaries as long as our country continues to go down the perilous path of unbalanced budgets and deficit spending toward bankruptcy!

RALPH S. LITTRELL

West Los Angeles