Necessary Roughness

AP reports that the House of Representatives voted themselves a $3,100 pay raise, making their salary $165,200 for next year. The last time that the Republicans rejected the pay raise was in 1998. Check this out at the end of the article:

“It’s not a pay raise,” said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. “It’s an adjustment so that they’re not losing their purchasing power.”

I’d like to see somebody going into their boss’s office during a pay freeze and give that line. I could understand a Congressman saying it’s not “much of” a pay raise, especially with the lobbying perks they get.