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are we just going to sit and take it... and keep taking it..

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  • #16
    Isn't there a trend towards deflation? Commodity prices are down, gas is going for about 40% of what it was earlier in the year, only food is still up.

    No sense in COLA.
    John Brown did nothing wrong.

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    • #17
      Re: are we just going to sit and take it... and keep taking it..

      Originally posted by boann


      are we just going to sit and take it... and keep taking it..

      I CAN'T HEAR YOU.
      YES WE ARE!

      Seriously though, any senator/congressman who doesn't need their salary to live on (I'd guess that's 70% or so) should donate it to the government. That would be a nice symbolic move. I'm thinking specifically about Mr. McCain -- he can also donate his 80k/year govt. pension. (G. Easterbrook, credit where credit is due and all that)
      The undeserving maintain power by promoting hysteria.

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      • #18
        Let me ask this, if the government can afford stimulus packages, why did they take it in the first place?
        Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
        "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
        He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

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        • #19
          Originally posted by Felch
          Isn't there a trend towards deflation? Commodity prices are down, gas is going for about 40% of what it was earlier in the year, only food is still up.

          No sense in COLA.
          It's gone down a fraction of a percent over the last few months, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate a +3.7% increase since Oct 2007.

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          • #20
            Originally posted by boann
            yes, Imran,

            it is (COLA) which occurs automatically unless the House explicitly votes to eliminate it for that year

            they get their raises every year regardless of the state of the economy.

            Our leadership appears to believe that cost-of-living adjustments make sense for Congressmen, but that cost-of-living adjustments do not make sense for working people making the minimum wage.
            Over 1.8 million civilians work for the federal government (not including postmen). Only 535 of them are congressmen. Most of the rest are working stiffs just like you -- the vast majority of federal workers are not fat cats in pinstripe suits but ordinary secretaries, clerks, and cubicle-dwellers, living paycheck to paycheck and worrying about retirement just like anyone else. That's who'll get the COLA -- which, if it's like the past few years, won't even keep pace with inflation.

            Complain about the bailouts; complain about the stimulus package. But spare us the faux-populist indignation over a tiny bit of extra money for working stiffs.
            Last edited by Rufus T. Firefly; December 11, 2008, 15:37.
            "I have as much authority as the pope. I just don't have as many people who believe it." — George Carlin

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            • #21
              /me chuckles
              I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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              • #22
                Rufus is on his was to Kabul. He needs the extra money for kevlar.

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                • #23
                  Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
                  Over 1.8 million civilians work for the federal government (not including postmen). Only 535 of them are congressmen. Most of the rest are working stiffs just like you -- the vast majority of federal workers are not fat cats in pinstripe suits but ordinary secretaries, clerks, and cubicle-dwellers, living paycheck to paycheck and worrying about retirement just like anyone else. That's who'll get the COLA -- which, if it's like the past few years, won't even keep pace with inflation.

                  Complain about the bailouts; complain about the stimulus package. But spare us the faux-populist indignation over a tiny bit of extra money for working stiffs.


                  If you take away my COLA, I will hunt you down, Boann!
                  “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.â€
                  - John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

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                  • #24
                    Yeah, no one better get between me and my Pepsi.

                    ACK!
                    Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust!

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                    • #25
                      there is outrage over CEO's and their parachute pay packages and private jets and spa retreats while the average worker is dumped on and laid off and has their wages frozen.
                      How exactly are you getting average? Is it the same way most of us are in foreclosure?
                      "The DPRK is still in a state of war with the U.S. It's called a black out." - Che explaining why orbital nightime pictures of NK show few lights. Seriously.

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                      • #26
                        good grief, can't a girl just have a good rant without getting between someone and their pepsi
                        hey, if you were running the country and doing a piss poor job of it, then i would get between you and your CODA.

                        average... umm i meant everyday.. the common man, the general worker... certainly nothing average about most of our financial situations.
                        "If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun." -Katherine Hepburn

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                        • #27
                          looks like the Senate isn't going to approve the bailout. Bush probably will though, he doesn't understand what money is.
                          Monkey!!!

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                          • #28
                            Joe the Common Man
                            And indeed there will be time To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?". t s eliot

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                            • #29
                              rufus, it's only congress that i am talking about anyway.

                              congress .. the ones we voted into their jobs and who are supposed to represent us and pass legislation. the ones who hold the government purse strings.
                              "If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun." -Katherine Hepburn

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                              • #30
                                Originally posted by boann
                                rufus, it's only congress that i am talking about anyway.

                                congress .. the ones we voted into their jobs and who are supposed to represent us and pass legislation. the ones who hold the government purse strings.
                                Fine, but the only elaboration you provided when Imran asked was to mention the annual federal COLA adjustment. The COLA adjustment is not "Congress voting itself a raise"; it's an annual, frankly insufficient salary adjustment for all federal workers.

                                So, if you really are going to write your congressman and senators about this, be clear. Demand that they exempt themselves from this year's COLA adjustment. But demanding that there be no COLA adjustment at all does little harm to Congress while harming exactly the kind of "little guy" you seem to care about.
                                "I have as much authority as the pope. I just don't have as many people who believe it." — George Carlin

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