Hightower Lowdown

At last, Congress is doing something for American families finding it hard to make ends meet, even in these so-called prosperous times. House Speaker Dennis Hastert led the bipartisan effort, speaking eloquently about economically-stressed workers with "three or four kids," and wailing: "I'm not crying crocodile tears, but they need to be able to have a life and provide for their families."

Unfortunately, it's not your family Denny was talking about. It was his—and the families of his 534 colleagues in the House and Senate! At a time when eight out of ten Americans are seeing their incomes go flat or go down, at a time when 25% of the jobs in America pay a poverty wage, the Congress voted itself a $4,600 pay raise. This comes on top of the $3,100 cost-of-living "adjustment" that it took last year.

This latest boost means that our lawmakers will be making $141,000 a year—putting them among the top 5% of American wage earners. This doesn't include the Cadillac health care benefits, the haircut subsidy, and other goodies they get at our expense.

Meanwhile, they continue to stall on increasing the minimum wage to a miserly $6.15 an hour. You've gotta love the chutzpah of Congress . . . raising Americans' standard of living 535 families at a time.