Thursday, March 14, 2013

Why Doesn't Sequester Affect Congress?

Since various government employees are having their salaries affected by the sequester and because it seems congress and the president aren't working hard to resolve the sequester I've seen a lot speculation that if Congress' salaries were affected this would get solved faster. So why aren't Representatives and Senators affected by the sequester? Is it because they think their too important? It turns out, nope.

The Constitution of the United States: Amendment 27: "No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened."

This was Originally proposed Sept. 25, 1789 and ratified May 7, 1992. The idea was that Congress couldn't vote themselves a raise and see it unless they were elected again (though it seems Senators could get it if in the first two thirds of their term). But as written, their salary can't be lowered either.

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