Congress-- Why Not Show Some &^*! Leadership?

According to a Sunday interview with George Stephanopoulos, Joe the VP will say the economy is close to "absolutely tanking". Last we heard from Joe he was telling us to mark his words--that Obama would be attacked in six months. What is it with these dark VPs? Some nuance would be nice five days before Christmas.

Meanwhile, as all economic hell is breaking loose the Democrat-run Congress has voted itself another raise. One might think the touchy-feelys in charge of Congress could take this time of the season to make a bold symbolic gesture--not only are they not taking a cost of living raise, but will vote themselves a pay cut (if that's even possible) [update- yes it is!]. They could say they were following the lead of Fred Smith here in Memphis, a man who knows how to run a business.

For that matter, president Bush should have considered rejecting ALL pay raises for all federal bureaucrats until further notice. An absolutely tanked economy will produce far less tax receipts to Uncle Sam, which doesn't mix well with the billions president Obama plans to spend to change the climate.

Federal unions are the main obstacle and Obama cozied up to every one of them, but Bush was in charge of this years' raise and had nothing to lose by zeroing it out. And Congress isn't unionized. They could have set the example, like they did in 1981 by refusing to take the massive pay raises given by president Carter on his way out, a whopping 9.1 percent when proposed.

Short of that perhaps a push could be made for a temporary layoff of Senators, dropping it down to one per state. Based on recent examples of campaiging while on duty by Clinton, McCain, Kerry, Obama and Biden himself, they are somewhat challenged for duties as it is.