A crumbling economy, more than 10.3 million unemployed people, and congressional demands for CEOs to work for free were not enough to convince lawmakers to freeze or reduce their own pay.

While lawmakers are making a big show of forcing auto executives to accept just $1 a year in salary, and most American workers aren't expecting a holiday bonus or a pay raise, it appears the lawmakers are quietly raiding the treasury for their own personal gain as they allow automatic pay raises to go into effect with the new Congress in January.

Today the average lawmaker makes $169,300 a year, with leadership making slightly more. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) makes $217,400, while the minority and majority leaders in the House and Senate each make $188,100.  The automatic increase of 2.8 percent will result in a $4,700 raise for each lawmaker, which will add an additional $2.5 million burden to taxpayers.

While forgoing pay raises is rare, it has precedent and last occurred in 2000.

Rep. Harry Mitchell, a first-term Democrat from Arizona, sponsored legislation earlier this year that would have prevented the automatic pay adjustments from kicking in for members next year. But the bill, which attracted 34 cosponsors, failed to make it out of committee.

While freezing the pay increase would be a step in the right direction, we think the system that allows Congress to quietly give themselves raises through automatic increases is the real problem. Especially in tough economic times when all Americans are asked to make sacrifices, Congress should have to take action, and vote, for a pay raise and deal with the consequences.

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