Cry Me a Pay Raise: Congress Cuts and Runs While America Suffers

They’re demanding raises and defending stock trading all while adjourning for summer to avoid a vote on the Epstein files and leave safety nets in flames.

Speaker Mike Johnson wants you to know that $174,000 a year just isn’t cutting it. According to the man third in line to the presidency, members of Congress are struggling to “support their families” and need the right to trade stocks just to scrape by. You know, like every day Americans do, between their night shift at Waffle House and waiting on their insulin copay to clear.

That’s right. In a country where the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour for 15 years, where 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and where food pantry lines snake around parking lots, the people who write the laws want sympathy for themselves.

Let’s be crystal clear: Members of Congress are not poor. Their base salary is $174,000, more than double the median American household income of $80,610. They receive generous healthcare, travel budgets, retirement benefits, and housing allowances. Many have second homes, stock portfolios, and spouses who lobby the very institutions they “oversee.” However, when Speaker Johnson was asked about banning congressional stock trading, his response wasn’t about ethics, but rather hardship.

“Let them engage in some stock trading so they can take care of their families,”
— Speaker Mike Johnson

Apparently, public service has become a financial burden for these poor, beleaguered elites. You know what else is a financial burden? Rent in every major city. Student loans. Grocery bills that jump 30% in a year. The cost of childcare. A broken arm without insurance.

You don’t hear everyday workers demanding the right to play the stock market on the job to cover it. Why? Because they’d be fired or arrested.

Only in Congress could someone cry poverty while raking in $14,500 a month and still vote against food assistance, affordable housing, and minimum wage increases. Only in Congress could someone argue for a constitutional right to insider trading because they can’t live off the kind of money most Americans will never see in their lifetimes.

This isn’t just tone-deaf. It’s contemptuous.
It’s Marie Antoinette in a navy suit.
It’s Washington declaring war on reality and expecting applause for surviving on “just” six figures.

And while they weep into their taxpayer-subsidized retirement plans, Congress is actively dismantling the lifelines working people rely on.

• Medicaid? Slashed.

• SNAP? Gutted.

• Rent relief? Gone.

Then they clock out — literally — for summer recess. Not to vote on childcare funding, or to fix the housing crisis, or even to address the fentanyl epidemic. No, they adjourn to avoid a vote on releasing the Epstein files, and to ensure they don’t have to face the consequences of what they’ve let fester behind closed doors.

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The ‘Peanuts’ Problem

The whining doesn’t stop at “supporting families.” Let’s be crystal clear, members of Congress are not poor.

If Speaker Mike Johnson had his way, we’d all stop what we’re doing, light a candle, and hold a national moment of silence for the poor, underpaid members of Congress. Because in a press appearance that would make even Marie Antoinette blush, Johnson declared that elected officials are paid — wait for it — “peanuts.”

“When you’re paid peanuts, it’s hard to attract the best talent.”
— Speaker Mike Johnson

Peanuts. That’s the word he used, as if $14,500 a month, taxpayer-funded benefits, and job security most Americans can only dream about is some kind of government cheese line.

Mind you, this is coming from a man with a private office in a marble building, a taxpayer-funded staff, government healthcare, and enough insider access to retire early or write a book and pretend it was hard-earned.

Let’s zoom out.

The median annual income for American households is $80,610. That means the average family makes less than half what a rank-and-file member of Congress earns, and with no perks, no pensions, no paid recesses, and definitely no security details.

Millions make far less. A full-time minimum wage worker earns $15,080 a year, before taxes. Assuming they even get full-time hours, which most don’t. And they don’t get housing allowances, per diems, or, in many cases, even paid sick days.

What would most Americans call $174,000 a year? A miracle. A lifeline. A lottery ticket.

Congress calls it an insult.

And here’s the kicker: the same politicians who cry about their “low” pay are the ones who:

• Blocked every single attempt to raise the minimum wage

• Let the expanded Child Tax Credit expire, throwing millions of families back into poverty

• Cut SNAP benefits under the guise of fiscal responsibility

• Gutted Social Security COLAs while arguing their own salaries should keep up with inflation

This isn’t just hypocrisy; it’s structured cruelty, a two-tiered economy where one class of people gets to complain about six-figure salaries while the rest get blamed for needing assistance at all.

Congress’s “peanuts” pity party is a scam. It’s cosplay, the costume of public service, worn by people who have nothing but contempt for those actually serving the public.

So when Mike Johnson talks about “attracting talent,” remember: He doesn’t mean teachers, EMTs, nurses, or public defenders. He means careerists, opportunists, and hedge fund darlings looking to turn a committee seat into a consulting gig.

Because in Washington, poverty is something you vote on, not something you experience.

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Frozen Wages (But Only Theirs Matter)

Yet the pity parade doesn’t end at “peanuts.” Members of Congress are quick to remind you that they haven’t gotten a raise since 2009. And that’s true — sort of.

Congress has voted every year since 2009 to reject their automatic cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), not out of noble sacrifice, but because they were afraid of headlines. They knew that raising their own pay during economic collapse would make them look bad. So instead, they froze their salaries and weaponized the optics, turning a political stunt into a talking point.

“Our wages haven’t increased in 15 years.”
— Members of Congress, as they quietly gut yours

Here’s what they won’t say out loud: While they froze their own salaries, they also froze — and in some cases, slashed — the wages and benefits of everyone else.

The Real Freeze:

• Federal minimum wage: Stuck at $7.25/hour since 2009
  (That’s $15,080/year — before taxes.)

• Adjusted for inflation? That’s worth less than $5/hour today.

• Social Security COLAs: Routinely lag behind actual cost-of-living increases, especially in rent, energy, and medical costs.

• Child Tax Credit: Expanded under COVID relief, slashed as soon as the headlines faded.

• SNAP: Cut during budget negotiations, even as food prices soared.

• Medicaid and housing aid: Slashed to make room for billionaire tax cuts.

Meanwhile, Congress still enjoys:

• Platinum-tier health insurance

• Lavish pensions

• District travel stipends and housing allowances

• Staff support, taxpayer-funded meals, and security

And remember, Congress chose to freeze their pay. You didn’t choose your stagnant wage. They imposed it on the rest of the country while spinning their own freeze as martyrdom.

They could have raised the minimum wage. They didn’t.
They could have indexed Social Security to real inflation. They wouldn’t.
They could have expanded tax credits that kept kids out of poverty. They let it expire.

And now that inflation is finally touching them, in their air-conditioned offices, their private stock portfolios, and their D.C. real estate holdings, they’re crying foul.

“We’re falling behind!”
— Lawmakers who haven’t worked a regular job in 20 years

This isn’t fiscal discipline. It’s controlled demolition of the working class, from inside a marble palace.

The truth is this: Congress didn’t freeze their raises out of selflessness. They froze them because they thought you wouldn’t notice they were freezing yours, too.

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Stock Trading & “Family Needs”

When their own salaries aren’t enough, members of Congress don’t downsize. They don’t budget. They don’t live like the Americans they supposedly represent.

They just start trading stocks.

“At least let them engage in some stock trading so that they can continue to take care of their family.”
— Speaker Mike Johnson

Let that sink in. Johnson isn’t just allowing congressional stock trading; he’s defending it as a moral good, as if day-trading Nvidia and defense contractors is some noble way to keep the lights on.

Let’s be clear, this isn’t about survival. It’s about greed.

Members of Congress are among the most well-connected, insider-briefed individuals in the country. They see legislation before the markets do. They know what’s coming. They set the economic rules, and then they bet on them.

And many of them profit handsomely.

Who’s Been Cashing In?

• Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): Her husband’s trades in tech stocks, including Alphabet, Nvidia, and Apple, consistently outperform the market. Pelosi’s estimated net worth? Over $120 million.

• Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX): Traded defense and aerospace stocks before and after military aid packages, including Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

• Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ): Made over 1,500 trades in 2023 alone. That’s not investing. That’s a side hustle.

• Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL): Traded in healthcare and defense companies while serving on the Armed Services Committee.

• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA): Bought stock in Lockheed Martin, then tweeted threats about U.S. military action abroad the next day.

This isn’t just shady. It’s legalized insider enrichment, carried out under laws they wrote and enforced by ethics rules they designed to be toothless.

While Congress is crying about “taking care of their families,” here’s what happens to yours if you try to build even a shred of financial security:

If You're Poor:

• On SNAP? Have over $2,750 in countable assets (like a used car or modest savings)? You may be disqualified.

• On Medicaid? A second vehicle or a few thousand in the bank could cost you your coverage.

• On SSI (disability)? You lose benefits if you save more than $2,000 total.

• On unemployment? Income caps and asset tests can cut you off before you’re stable.

Poor people get penalized for owning anything. Congress gets applause for owning everything — and doubling down on it while in office.

A working mom with $2,800 in savings can lose food assistance, while a Congress member with $28 million in stocks gets praised for “financial responsibility.”

This is not an economic system. This is a caste system, one where poverty is criminalized and wealth is sanctified, especially when it's accumulated from inside the Capitol.

And Johnson has the nerve to argue that Congress members need stock trading to survive? They don’t need it. They want it because it allows them to turn public service into private profit.

And while they’re defending their “right” to day-trade, they’re blocking efforts to:

• Ban individual stock ownership for members of Congress

• Require blind trusts

• Enforce real-time trade disclosure

• Hold violators criminally accountable

If they cared about ethics, they’d legislate against this. If they cared about fairness, they’d write laws that poor Americans could actually live under. But they don’t, because the rules were never meant to apply to them.

So the next time Speaker Johnson invokes “family,” ask him whose, because it sure as hell isn’t yours.

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Meanwhile in the Real World…

While Speaker Johnson hand-wrings about how hard it is to survive on $174,000 a year, millions of Americans are trying to survive on one-tenth of that, with no perks, no pensions, and no margin for error.

Welcome to the real world, the one Congress visits in campaign ads, but legislates like it doesn’t exist.

Let’s start with the numbers:

• 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck (LendingClub, 2024)

• Over 11.5 million children live in poverty

• More than 550,000 Americans are homeless on any given night

• 17 million adults carry medical debt, the leading cause of bankruptcy

• 43% of Americans with health insurance skip care because of cost

These aren’t abstract statistics. They’re real people:

• The Amazon delivery driver sleeping in his van

• The nursing assistant who skipped her meds to buy formula

• The single parent with two jobs and no childcare

• The cancer patient choosing between chemo and eviction

The Wage Reality:

• Federal minimum wage: $7.25/hour
  That’s $15,080/year — before taxes

• To afford a modest two-bedroom apartment, you’d need to make $25.82/hour

• Most public sector workers, such as teachers, social workers, and paramedics, earn under $60K and can’t afford rent in the cities they serve

Meanwhile, Congress:

• Works about 147 days a year

• Makes $174,000 (base)

• Gets platinum health care, housing stipends, pensions, and stock portfolios

They take recesses. Americans take side gigs.

They take lobbyist-funded lunches. Americans take out payday loans.

They get to whine about the cost of living on C-SPAN. Americans get told to “tighten their belts.”

Want to know how disconnected Congress is? The same people who earn $14,500 a month have just voted to cut food aid for families living on less than that amount per year.

And when working people try to save a little extra, go back to school, or pick up a second job, the system punishes them:

• Lose your Medicaid for earning $50 too much

• Lose your housing voucher because your kid took a summer job

• Lose your SNAP benefits for getting a few hundred bucks in child support

It’s a trap. Congress built it.

They pretend they don’t know how brutal the system is. They do. They wrote the laws that made it this way.

They’ve decided the working class should scrape and hustle and burn out, while they take four-day workweeks and complain about “losing talent” in D.C.

Let’s be very clear:

If Congress thinks $174K isn’t enough, they need to spend a week living like one of the 60 million Americans scraping by on less than $35,000/year.

But they won’t, because they don’t have to. They’ve built themselves a system where their suffering is always theoretical, and yours is always your fault.

This isn’t just inequality. This is legislated cruelty, carried out by people who don’t know what a grocery bill looks like and don’t care to learn.

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The Executive Pay Smoke Screen

Every time Congress gets heat for its pay, they fall back on a tired excuse: “If we don’t pay well, we won’t attract good people.”

Oh really? Because Congress sure doesn’t mind when teachers leave in droves because they can’t afford housing, or when nurses burn out from understaffed hospitals, or when paramedics and public defenders quit because their caseloads are unmanageable.

They don’t seem worried about that talent pipeline.

However, the moment anyone questions whether Congress deserves more than $174,000/year, with perks and privileges that most people can only imagine, it becomes an existential crisis for democracy.

Let’s take a look at what Congress has actually done about wages in this country:

• Voted against raising the minimum wage for over a decade

• Let the tipped minimum wage stay at $2.13/hour in many states

• Blocked universal paid family leave

• Allowed wage theft and misclassification to run rampant

• Gutted union power while corporations posted record profits

But when it comes to CEO compensation? Congress gets real quiet.

The Real Talent Drain

• In 2024, the average S&P 500 CEO made $18.9 million

• That’s a pay ratio of 272:1 compared to their average worker

• Some companies clocked in at over 1,000:1

• In 2021, Amazon’s CEO made $212 million

• Elon Musk’s Tesla package? Over $50 billion across 10 years

And Congress — Democrats and Republicans alike — have done almost nothing to rein this in.

They haven’t capped executive pay.
They haven’t tied CEO bonuses to worker wages.
They haven’t ended tax deductions for executive stock options.
They haven’t passed a wealth tax.
They haven’t even named the problem.

Instead, they frame their own six-figure salary as a sacrifice.

Meanwhile:

• Teachers earn an average of $58,000

• Home health aides earn $30,000

• Childcare workers often make $10–12/hour

• Paramedics earn around $49,000

These are the people we actually can’t afford to lose, the people who hold the country together, not lobby it into pieces.

And yet, Congress won’t lift a finger to secure those wages, but when it comes to their own? Suddenly, it’s time to pass out tissues and talk about “attracting talent.”

Let’s be real:

• Public service isn’t supposed to be a fast track to wealth.

• It’s supposed to be a temporary sacrifice, not a lifetime hustle.

• The Founders didn’t fight a revolution so that future lawmakers could day-trade defense contracts and complain about housing costs in Arlington.

If Congress were serious about talent, they’d fund schools. They’d protect nurses. They’d raise wages for people who serve the public, not just those who fund campaigns.

But that would mean changing the rules. It would mean holding their corporate donors accountable. It would mean facing the same insecurity that the rest of the country lives with every day.

So instead, they keep the CEO class happy. They cash their checks. And they sell the public a lie about needing $174K to “serve with dignity.”

Let’s be very clear: Congress does not care about attracting the best and brightest.
They care about attracting the richest, the most connected, and the most obedient to the donor class.

And when they look at the rest of us, they don’t see “talent.” They see a threat to be managed, and a vote to be manipulated.

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What the Public Thinks

• 70% of voters support banning stock trading for Congress

• Only 5% believe members should be allowed to trade individual stocks

• Over 60% support mandatory blind trusts for all elected officials

• Poll after poll shows deep, bipartisan rage at the perception and reality that Congress enriches itself while the country burns

And people are starting to move.

The Pushback Begins

• #BanCongressTrading trended for weeks in the wake of Pelosi’s and Tuberville’s trades

• Groups like 50501 and No Kings are organizing direct actions, town hall confrontations, and local pressure campaigns

• Activists have begun showing up at donor events, closed-door panels, and fundraisers to confront the powerful directly

• Capitol Hill insiders are anonymously leaking to journalists and watchdogs. Even people inside the machine are fed up

The Powder Keg Is Lit

Congress is asking for raises and stock trading rights, while gutting SNAP, letting child poverty spike, and taking paid recess to avoid basic accountability votes.

They’ve written laws that shield themselves. They’ve built wealth while others drown in debt. They’ve broken faith — not just with voters, but with democracy itself.

They believe the public will simply continue to scroll, shrug, and endure quietly.

But here’s the problem for them: The receipts are public now. The hypocrisy is naked. The people are watching.

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If Congress continues to prioritize its own interests, don’t be surprised when the public stops cooperating.

This isn’t about partisanship. It’s about basic decency.

• No more recesses while Americans suffer.

• No more raises while kids go hungry.

• No more privilege without principle.

You want a raise, Speaker Johnson? Pass a law that raises everyone else first.

Until then, we’re done listening. We’re done sympathizing. And we’re done letting you write the rules and rig the game.

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What You Can Do Right Now

Congress is on recess. That means they're home and vulnerable to public pressure. Let them hear from you:

Call the Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

Ask to speak with your Senator or House Representative.

Sample Script:

"Hi, my name is [Your Name], and I’m a constituent from [Your City]. I’m calling to demand that [Representative/Senator Name] oppose any congressional pay increase or defense of stock trading by members. Instead, they should vote to raise the minimum wage, expand the Child Tax Credit, and support the release of the Epstein files. Congress needs to serve the people, not enrich themselves."

Then, email them.

Find your lawmakers at https://www.congress.gov/members
Send a message with the subject line: “No Pay Raise Until the People Are Fed.”

Use your voice. The country is watching. And this time, we’re not looking away.

Bibliography:

• Congressional Research Service. Salaries of Members of Congress: Recent Actions and Historical Tables. Updated January 9, 2024.

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Minimum Wage.” Last modified March 2024.

• OpenSecrets. “Net Worth of U.S. Senators and Representatives.” Accessed July 23, 2025.

• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Out of Reach Report 2024. National Low Income Housing Coalition.

• “The value of the federal minimum wage is at its lowest point in 66 years.” EPI Blog, July 2021.

• Investopedia. “Inflation Adjusted Minimum Wage in the U.S.” March 2024.

• Cornell University ILR School. “Minimum Wage.” April 25, 2024.

• Business Insider. “Poll: 70% of Voters Support Banning Lawmakers From Trading Stocks.” June 21, 2022.

• Public Consultation Project, University of Maryland. “In Six Swing States, Democrats and Republicans Agree Congress, SCOTUS, POTUS and VP Should Not Trade Stocks.” 2024 poll summary.

• Wikipedia. “STOCK Act.” Updated June 2025.

• Paycor Resource Center. “Minimum Wage Rate by State in the U.S. [2025].” Updated June 26, 2025.

• Truthout. “Polling Finds 67 Percent of Voters Support Banning Congress From Trading Stocks.” 2021–2022 summary.

• Axios. Newsletter: “1 big thing: Happy 15th birthday, $7.25 federal minimum wage.” July 2024.

• Economic Policy Institute. “Impact of the Raise the Wage Act of 2025.” April 2025 fact sheet.