This just pisses me off beyond belief- vote on your raise, but let the people who earn 5 friggen bucks an hour not get a raise in 9 years!!

First:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite record low approval ratings, House lawmakers Tuesday embraced a $3,300 pay raise that will increase their salaries to $168,500.

The 2 percent cost-of-living raise would be the seventh straight for members of the House and Senate.

Lawmakers easily squelched a bid by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to get a direct vote to block the COLA, which is automatically awarded unless lawmakers vote to block it.

In the early days of GOP control of Congress, lawmakers routinely denied themselves the annual COLA. Last year, the Senate voted 92-6 to deny the raise but quietly surrendered the position in House-Senate talks.

As part of an ethics reform bill in 1989, Congress gave up their ability to accept pay for speeches and made annual cost-of-living pay increases automatic unless the lawmakers voted otherwise.

The pay issue has been linked to the annual Transportation and Treasury Department spending bill because that measure stipulates that civil servants get raises of 2.7 percent, the same as military personnel will receive. Under a complicated formula, the increase translates to 2 percent for members of Congress.

Like last year, Matheson led a quixotic drive to block the raise. He was the only member to speak on the topic.

"I do not think that it is appropriate to let this bill go through without an up or down vote on whether or not Congress should have an increase in its own pay," Matheson said.

But by a 249-167 vote, the House rejected Matheson's procedural attempt to get a direct vote on the pay raise.

The pay raise would also apply to the vice president -- who is president of the Senate -- congressional leaders and Supreme Court justices.

This year, Vice President Cheney, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Chief Justice John Roberts receive $212,100. Associate justices receive $203,000. House and Senate party leaders get $183,500.

President Bush's salary of $400,000 is unaffected by the legislation.

Then:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives panel Tuesday voted to raise the U.S. minimum wage in increments to $7.25 an hour by Jan. 1, 2009.

The House Appropriations Committee backed the proposal by a vote of 32-27 during work on a massive fiscal 2007 funding bill for labor and health programs.

But the legislation faces many hurdles, including possible efforts by Republican leaders to have the proposal stricken from the legislation, according to Republican and Democratic aides.

Under the proposal, which was offered by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, the current $5.15-per-hour federal minimum wage would rise in 70-cent increments starting Jan. 1, 2007. On that date, the minimum wage would be set at $5.85 and a year later it would go to $6.55 before topping off at $7.25 in 2009.

Opponents, using House rules, could argue that this change in law should not be attached to annual spending bills, such as the measure approved by the House Appropriations Committee.

For the last several years, Democrats have been pushing to raise the minimum wage, which has been static since 1997.

Republicans have blocked the move, claiming it would discourage hiring of low-skilled workers and hurt the economy.

The next step for the legislation will be the House Rules Committee, which will have to decide whether to "protect" the amendment as part of the bill or let any lawmaker object to it when the legislation hits the House floor.

"Hopefully, the Rules Committee will protect it and we're going to have a showdown on the minimum wage," Rep. George Miller of California, the senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, told reporters.

Hoyer and Miller said there would be bipartisan support for raising the minimum wage for 7.3 million workers if a full debate was allowed on the House floor.

The Senate has not yet debated the fiscal 2007 labor and health spending bill