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**Written by Doug Powers

In any real-world performance-based pay system guided by rules of efficiency, effectiveness, accuracy, competence and return on employee investment, Nancy Pelosi and many of her colleagues would not only have stopped getting paychecks long ago, but they’d probably have been accused of stealing $16 trillion worth of office supplies. Unfortunately, we’re not talking about the real world, but the ever-expanding Fantasy-Land.

From The Hill:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that she opposes a cut in congressional pay because it would diminish the dignity of lawmakers’ jobs.

“I don’t think we should do it; I think we should respect the work we do,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. “I think it’s necessary for us to have the dignity of the job that we have rewarded.”

The comments were made in the context of the looming sequester, which would force across-the-board cuts affecting most federal offices, including Congress. With lawmakers nowhere near a deal to avert those cuts, federal agencies are bracing for ways to absorb them with minimum damage to programs and personnel.

In other words, a pay cut is beneath their pay grade. The rest of the country, not so much.

**Written by Doug Powers

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