Typical politician: Say one thing, do another

Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-MN) is probably no different than the majority of politicians in Congress: He has the uncanny ability to say one thing and do another.

For example, in his recent Washington Insider's E-line, which comes out every Friday, he wrote:

On March 8, I joined with my colleagues from the Republican Study Committee to renew our commitment to the principles of the Contract With America. While I may not agree with every line of this substitute amendment, I do support its overall goal of balancing the budget in five years and saving taxpayers nearly $360 billion.

The attack on September 11th, the War on Terror, and national emergencies like Katrina are largely to blame for our deficit, but not completely. Wasteful government spending also adds to the national debt, and we need to address it.

What he fails to mention are the two giant elephants in the room that really caused the soaring budget deficit: the war in Iraq and the multiple tax cuts that have primarily benefited the very wealthy in this country. Rep. Gutknecht has consistently supported and unabashedly voted for both since President Bush came into office.

What he also fails to mention is that the Contract With America calls for congressional term limits of 12 years (or less). Rep. Gutknecht's 12 years will be complete come January 2007, so any normal person who takes the congressman at his word would expect him to retire. No dice. He's up for reelection... again.

Below is summary of the proposed Citizen Legislature Act that Rep. Gutknecht and the other signers of the Contract With America promised the citizens of the United States:

This resolution provides for consideration of two joint resolutions which propose amendments to the constitution limiting the number of terms members of the Senate and the House of Representatives can serve. The first joint resolution (identical to H.J.Res. 38 as introduced in the 103rd Congress) limits the number of Senate terms to two and the number of House terms to six. The second joint resolution (identical to H.J.Res. 160 as introduced in the 103rd Congress) also limits Senators to two terms, but it limits members of the House to three terms.

Under the terms of this resolution, the joint resolution with the text of H.J.Res. 38 will be debated first and the first amendment in order will be a substitute consisting of H.J.Res. 160.

Too many politicians of both parties have found that the congressional lifestyle is a very sweet deal. And yet ordinary Americans are just getting by. Rep. Gutknecht himself has said, "Why is there still economic angst in the United States? The answer is the average working American hasn't had a real pay raise."

Fortunately for Mr. Gutknecht and the rest of Congress, they are not "average working Americans." Below is a table of their pay raises since 2000:

Year	Congressional Salary	Amount of Increase from Previous Year	% Increase from Previous Year	Total Increase from 2000	% Increase from 2000
2006	$165,200	$3,100	1.9%	$23,900	16.9%
2005	$162,100	$4,000	2.5%	$20,800	14.7%
2004	$158,100	$3,400	2.2%	$16,800	11.9%
2003	$154,700	$4,700	3.1%	$13,400	9.5%
2002	$150,000	$4,900	3.4%	$8,700	6.2%
2001	$145,100	$3,800	2.7%	$3,800	2.7%
2000	$141,300	--	--	--	--

So Congress gave itself pay raises over the last six years totalling $23,900. Just for the record: $23,900 is $3,900 more than the 2006 Federal Poverty Guidelines for a family of four.

How many signers of the Contact With America voted against these increases, and was Mr. Gutknecht one of them?

Go figure.

LP