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Show Hf Battle Creek vicr- All my life I have been happy to receive Valentines, particularly particul-arly if those sent them "Cared Enough to Send the Very Best." But never have I been fortunate fortun-ate enough to receive one in the category of the ones to be received re-ceived February 14, 1969 by the "honorable" U.S. Senators and Congressmen. A substantial majority of these gentlemen recently voted to accept a $12,500 Valenine, each, from the American taxpayers. tax-payers. And by this simple act, they raised their individual yearly salaries to $42,500, a bootst of 41 per cent. But that's not the end. Salaries Sal-aries of Cabinet members and Supreme Court Justices are to be raised by a greater percentage percent-age than that. Also substantial raises will be awarded to Congressional Con-gressional assistants and other oth-er administrative heads of departments. de-partments. Nationally qualified economists econo-mists estimate that when all the greedy hands are withdrawn with-drawn from the U.S. Treasury, the total grab will amount to $4.5 billion. This is about one-half one-half of the total 10 per cent surtax expected to be received via the 1958 income tax returns. When the surtax bill was enacted, en-acted, Senators and Congressmen Congress-men who supported it said that the purpose was to curb inflation infla-tion and help balance the federal fed-eral budget. But now that the extra money is rolling in, they can't keep their "cotton pickin' fingers" out of it. There's little doubt that most of the newly elected Senators and Congressmen campaigned on a promise to hold a tight line on galloping inflation. How in heavens name can they now buck up to union and management manage-ment leaders during the next round of unreasonable wage and price demands? Their own 41 per cent increase will cut the sand right out from under their feet. The impact of this latest treasury raid upon the middle class American taxpayers is terrific. This was exemplified in a conversation I had the other day with a veteran Utah County businessman. Said he, "During my long years of experience as a businessman busi-nessman and taxpayer, I have never had such feelings of discouragement dis-couragement and almost utter despair. What little respect and confidence I held for our national na-tional Congress have been completely com-pletely obliterated." Perhaps we Utalins can take a modicum of comfort in the fact that Representatives Burton Bur-ton and Lloyd voted against accepting ac-cepting the salary increase and Senator Moss was "paired a-gainst a-gainst it." However Senator Bennett, reportedly re-portedly a millionaire in his own right, voted to accept it. He reportedly said that he voted vot-ed to accept the whole pay raise package, so that cabinet and sub-cabinet salaries could be raised. If that is the case, Utah's Senior Senator could donate the $12,500 to the Utah State treasury. treas-ury. Lord knows we could use it here. So long 'til Thursday. |