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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that she opposes a cut in congressional pay because it would diminish the dignity of lawmakers' jobs. So Nancy don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.
Congress approval rating somewhere below cockroaches, traffic jams, and Nickelback in Americans' esteem
The newest Public Policy Polling national poll finds that Congress only has a 9% favorability rating with 85% of voters viewing it in a negative light. We've seen poll after poll after poll over the last year talking about how unpopular Congress is but really, what's the difference between an 11% or a 9% or a 7% favorability rating? So we decided to take a different approach and test Congress' popularity against 26 different things. And what we found is that Congress is less popular than cockroaches, traffic jams, and even Nickelback.
"I don't think we should do it; I think we should respect the work we do," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. "I think it's necessary for us to have the dignity of the job that we have rewarded." (Nancy certainly places a high value on her opinion of herself … TIME TO LEAVE!)
The comments were made in the context of the looming sequester, which would force across-the-board cuts affecting most federal offices, including Congress. With lawmakers nowhere near a deal to avert those cuts, federal agencies are bracing for ways to absorb them with minimum damage to programs and personnel.
Pelosi, whose husband is a wealthy real-estate developer, was quick to note that a cut in her own pay would be far less significant than that for both staffers and less wealthy members of Congress. (Well the only thing keeping her there is her ego!)
She also emphasized that Congress should do everything it can to preclude such decisions by preventing the sequester cuts from taking effect at all.
"A sequester should be out of the question," she said. (Nancy Obama and his team, which you are a significant part came up with this idea … Obama signed it into law. Perhaps you should have read it before so that you could have seen what's in it!)
Still, with the clock ticking down to March 1 – and with both chambers of Congress out of town next week – the chances of reaching a deal are growing slimmer. With that in mind, some lawmakers say they're hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
"We are, in fact, obviously contemplating a sequester," Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said this week. "Obviously we are going to take a cut, like everybody else, and we will have to accommodate that."
