By Jaxan Christensen
Wow, I can”t believe the Record-Bee received such a response from Mike Thompson for my letter. I must have hit a nerve or hot button!
To continue his line of thought about opinions and facts, though, half truths abound. He is correct, the present Congress did not vote for any annual pay increase this year. Congress, in 1989, passed legislation providing for automatic annual pay raises, unless a specific vote is passed to reject it, each year. Since 2000 this Congress has voted itself over $16,000 in raises and in 2008 accepted a $4,100 annual pay raise.
Opinion: Any Congress, this one included, ethically should create legislation to stop this automatic annual salary increase and provide taxpayers a proper venue for monitoring and even reducing their salary especially in such poor economic times.
Fact: The Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) is tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which is not really that complicated of a formula. It is tied to other indexes that weight and average data. It is widely used throughout the world and in many industries to price a number of costs; commercial rents, loan pricing, wages, pension funds and, of course, Social Security, to name a few.
Opinion: The CPI plummeted this year due to radical legislation passed by Congress, resulting in an economy that continues to shrink. The downturn in the economy lowered the CPI, which resulted in the elimination of the COLA increase for Social Security. The validity of using any of these indexes to drive or save our economy is questionable as all indexes can be easily manipulated based on data used.
Opinion: Mr. Thompson continues to use unverifiable numbers and percentages to data that is irrelevant to the discussion. This kind of data-speak is bullying, keeps citizens in the dark and unwilling to speak out and creates a diversion from the core of the discussion which is, “this Congress is aloof and unresponsive to the needs of the taxpayer.”
Jaxan Christensen
Upper Lake
