Barrett: Practice What You Preach

Gresham Barrett, a Republican, represents South Carolina's 3rd Congressional District

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20090326/OPINION/903260308/1008/OPINION

At its core, the outrage over AIG is about not rewarding mismanagement with taxpayer money. However, one of the greatest examples of mismanagement is what continues to occur in Congress. It stands to reason then that the same folks who gave us the AIG bonuses, who gave us 9,000 earmarks in the omnibus spending bill, who gave us a record-breaking deficit and an ineffective stimulus bill, should be the last people to receive a taxpayer-funded bonus.

But, that's exactly what they got.

For the past 20 years, members of Congress have received an automatic taxpayer-funded annual bonus. To make matters even worse, members never had to vote on the bonus. That way they would not be criticized for voting themselves a raise. This year, rank-and-file members received a $4,700 pay hike. House leadership received even more.

Just to put things into perspective, Speaker Nancy Pelosi now receives an annual salary of $223,500 -- not to mention access to U.S. Air Force Gulfstream jets. Those kinds of perks and privileges sound pretty similar to me to the ones afforded to the corporate executives that members of Congress are so quick to criticize.