Senior citizens will receive an increase of $756 in Social Security next year, but lawmakers will reportedly receive an increase of $4,700 which will increase their annual salaries to $174,000 — an increase that will end up costing taxpayers more than $2.5 million on top of the trillions of dollars slapped onto taxpayers courtesy of the fraudulent financial bailout.
Congress completely capitulated to President Bush’s illegal actions these past eight years — authorizing illegal, unconstitutional ‘legislation’ such as the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act which thoroughly destroyed civil rights and freedom, The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 which sanctioned torture, the Real ID Act of 2005 that would threaten personal privacy if enacted, institutionalized illegal spying with the Protect America Act, destroyed Fourth Amendment protections against illegal search and seizure by authorizing the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, authorized illegal wars…the list goes on and on. Congressional deregulation of the financial industry played a major role in the financial meltdown.
Threatening Marshall Law if the fraudulent bailout wasn’t authorized gave Congress another black eye. Congressional leaders were notified of the illegal spying and torture authorized by President Bush long before the public was made aware of it, yet did nothing to stop or prevent it, going so far as encouraging more of it in some cases.
Corrupt Republicans in the Senate have been trying to destroy the United Auto Workers Union by claiming — falsely — that American auto workers are paid $73 an hour. Because auto workers “are paid too much,” the Senate purposely stalled a bill that would have aided ‘struggling’ automakers — although one wonders how much they’re actually struggling when GM’s parent company makes $100 billion a year and they’re gearing up for more production in Mexico — but Bush went ahead and announced that his administration would give automakers a loan with multiple contingencies.