Um, No: AOC Explains Why She Says It's Necessary For Congress To Receive A Pay Raise

Beth Baumann | June 11, 2019 5:35 PM

Democrats on Monday decided to pull a line from a massive funding bill that would give a pay raise to members of Congress. The decision came after a massive clash between various factions of the Democratic Party, POLITICO reported.

But, according to everyone's favorite scholar, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), the pay raises are a necessity to keep dark money out of politics. Apparently not getting a pay raise "punishes" some members and "rewards" others.

Yep. Voting against cost of living increases for members of Congress may sound nice, but doing so only increases pressure on them to keep dark money loopholes open.

This makes campaign finance reform *harder.*

ALL workers deserve cost of living increases, incl min wage workers. https://t.co/fCdgHKx4G1
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 11, 2019

What this does is punish members who rely on a straight salary, and reward those who rely on money loopholes and other forms of self-dealing.

For example, it incentivizes the horrible kinds of legislative looting we saw in the GOP tax scam bill.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 11, 2019

It’s not a fun or politically popular position to take. But consistency is important.

ALL workers should get cost of living increases. That’s why minimum wage should be pegged to inflation, too.

Voting against cost of living increases is 1 reason why dark $ loopholes stay open.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 11, 2019

What Ocasio-Cortez is saying makes absolutely no sense. Yes, cost of living increases are something to consider for every job in every sector. What she's failing to mention though is that members of Congress make $174,000 a year, plus benefits and a pension. How many people do you know who make that kind of money? Probably very few and those that you do know are probably doctors or lawyers and have massive amounts of student loan debt.

Giving Congress a pay raise will only increase their pay... on paper. There will still be "dark money" in politics. People will always have a vested interest in what decisions Congress makes and they will do whatever they can to influence politicians. Americans want to make sure that their interests are protected, whether the issue be gun rights or protecting health care for seniors. That's just the nature of the beast.

Giving more money to Congress to "represent us" won't suddenly remove the desire for more money and more power. Greed is an evil human desire that tends to strike politicians. And the longer someone is in Congress the more powerful, the more wealthy and the more hungry they become.

While average Americans struggle to make ends meet and live paycheck-to-paycheck on an average household income of $56,000, you all can manage just fine with the $174,000 you're getting.