Cost of Living Increase

As of October 2008 the federal government tabulated the annual cost of living increase for 2009 for anyone living in the United States. This is saying that the amount of money we have to spend for utilities, living space, food, fuel, and all other necessary monies the average person has to lay out, is 5.8% more than the previous year. Based on that tabulation they increased the funds to Social Security recipients 5.8%.
However, there is another group of people, also living in America, that has tabulated their cost of living increase at 17%. That was the "cost of living" pay raise Congress awarded to themselves. Almost three times the actual cost of living increase the same government had established as fact.
It makes you wonder how the average cost of living for a retiree in Washington DC only went up 5.8% when the average cost of living for a Senator or Representative living in Washington DC went up 17%.
Makes me wonder just when it was our representatives stopped representing us?

One day in 1991, the wife and I were driving around on a tent camping trip. We stopped at an exit off of Interstate 15 just south over the mountains from the Las Vegas area. After buying some drinks and snacks we looked at the map to see where that exit road would lead. It appeared to connect with Interstate 40 to the south, so we decided to drive across that way. Several miles down the road, driving through desolate high desert country we were totally surprised to see this rather large, abandoned railroad station out in the middle of nowhere. A sign on the building said "Kelso, California". We stopped, took a couple of pictures and browsed around a bit, then continued on our way. Since then the building has been restored and is operated by the Park Service. There is a web site that shows more pictures and a brief history of the place at http://www.desertusa.com/mnp/mnp_kelso2.html