Even as the year draws to an end, soon-to-be-former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi takes another swipe against American taxpayers. For the second time this year, she’s raised the ceiling on how much House staffers can make. Funny how she waited to make the announcement until the last working day of the year, a time when Congress is in recess. Gee, I wonder if she felt the need to outdo President Biden and the omnibus bill that had to be flown to him in St. Croix earlier this week.

A bit of near history. In August 2021, Pelosi raised the maximum salary for House staffers to $199, 300, up from $173,900. Earlier this year, she once again raised staffers’ maximum pay to $203, 700. I don’t know about you, but I’d be pretty darned happy with these two raises. I certainly wouldn’t be clamoring for more money so soon. Not that the staffers needed to. Yesterday, Pelosi raised the ceiling again. This time to $212,100. If my math’s right, that means a possible $38,000 raise in less than two years.

Damn, I wish I could get a raise like that.

Speaker Pelosi announces the House will raise the maximum annual rate of pay for staff to $212,100.  In an effort to “retain and recruit the best talent in our nation — and to build a Congressional workforce that reflects the communities we are honored to serve.” pic.twitter.com/bK3juXgptX

— Raquel Martin (@RaquelMartinTV) December 30, 2022

Consider this: while the outgoing (yay!) Speaker is handing out raises of thousands of dollars to House staffers, our senior citizens who rely on Social Security are getting a minimal raise in payments this year and much of that raise will go to pay for the increase in their Medicare premiums.

If that’s not enough to make you at least pause as you consider Pelosi’s 23rd hour play, think about this:

That means some top staffers will be in the position of earning more money than their bosses. Rank-and-file members of Congress earn $174,000 annually, while certain members of congressional leadership have higher salaries. The House Speaker earns $223,500, while the majority and minority leaders in both chambers, as well as the Senate president pro tempore, earn $193,400.

Now, I think we’re overpaying most members of our federal government. But to think we are paying House staff members more than our elected officials. . . .

But Nancy has an excuse–pardon me, an explanation–for why this is necessary.

As you know, our hard-working, patriotic congressional staffers are integral to the functioning of the House of Representatives,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to House lawmakers, adding “to that end, we must do all we can to retain and recruit the best talent in our nation — and to build a congressional workforce that reflects the communities we are honored to serve.”

I guess that beats her explanation for the earlier pay raise when she said it was to “expand the diversity of backgrounds and perspectives among the staff.” Or the raise before which was to prevent them from jumping ship “for higher-paying jobs at lobbying groups or in the executive branch.” Inquiring minds want to know if she was really concerned about keeping these staffers working for House members or if she wanted to do what she could to keep them from competing with outgoing House members who might want to join the lobbying groups.

And heaven help those poor staffers who might be so deluded or misguided that they actually want to work for the executive branch. (I swear if I roll my eyes much harder, they will fall out and I’ll be hard pressed to get them back before the cats start playing with them.)

I probably shouldn’t be surprised by anything Her Hautiness, the wannabe Queen of San Fran, does.

That proposal to allow House staffers to unionize was announced at the same time as the earlier pay raise this year. It didn’t take the House long to pass the bill. Fortunately, the Senate has not yet followed suit.

So now we have House staffers who potentially make more than their bosses. We have, as recently as this past week, a majority members of the House of Representatives filing paperwork to allow them to vote by proxy on the $1.7 trillion spending bill. Thank you, San Fran Nan, for undermining our confidence in the House, for reaching deep into our pockets every chance you get and for showing that you don’t value your fellow members of the House as much as you do certain members of the House staff.

Please, Mrs. Pelosi, shuffle on through the door. Be sure to hand your gavel off on the way out. If we’re lucky, you won’t think of anything else you can do to screw the nation over before the next Congress convenes.

Featured Image created using Midjourney AI by Amanda S. Green.