Cubin votes for pay hike

Contact:  Bill Luckett, Executive Director   307-473-1457 (office)   307-473-1459 (fax)  

From the Wyoming Democratic Party

For immediate release

June 28, 2007

Contact: Bill Luckett

Communications director

307-631-7638

Cubin finally shows up for a vote - to give herself a raise

Dems point out hypocrisy of raising her salary to $170,000 a year while opposing minimum wage increase

CASPER - Barbara Cubin, who has missed more votes this year than all but one living member of Congress, showed up when it counted Wednesday and cast a proud vote to increase her own salary to nearly $170,000. [Vote 580, 6/27/07]

In a telling contrast, Cubin earlier this year voted against a Democratic bill to increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour by 2009. [Vote 18, 1/10/07]

Although Cubin was already scheduled to make 15 times as much money as a minimum-wage worker, she voted to give herself more money while making sure those at the low end of the income spectrum get nothing. The two votes paint a picture of a hypocritical and self-serving method of conducting the people's business, according to Wyoming Democratic Party spokesman Bill Luckett.

"Apparently Barbara Cubin doesn't think she should be forced to live on a measly $165,000 a year, but people who make $5.15 an hour don't deserve a single raise in over a decade," Luckett said. "The people of Wyoming deserve better representation in Congress."

Technically speaking, Cubin voted to kill a bid to take a direct vote on the pay increase, which takes effect unless lawmakers move to block it [CNN.com, "House gives itself a raise," http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/27/congress.raise.ap/index.html].

This is a legal technicality Cubin uses to make sure she gets a raise every year while claiming that she "has never directly voted to give herself a raise," but Luckett said that doesn't change the fact that Cubin voted in a way that guarantees that she would get a bigger paycheck.

"The fact of the matter is, the only vote on the issue of congressional salaries that Barbara Cubin cast this year had the effect of ensuring that she gets to put more of our tax money into her own pocket," Luckett said. "Don't let her fool you when she denies that she voted to give herself a raise. She's hiding behind the technicalities of the law, but we all know what the bottom line is - especially Mrs. Cubin."

According to the latest figures from the Washington Post, Cubin is now the third-worst vote misser in the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives. Among those in the top five, two of them are dead, one has had urinary tract surgery AND suffered a recurrence of breast cancer, while the other - Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter of California - is running for president. [Washington Post Congress Votes database, "House members who missed votes," http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/house/vote-missers/]

"Wyoming's only voice in the U.S. House has been silent for way too long during Barbara Cubin's entire tenure in Congress," Luckett said. "Again, Wyoming deserves better."

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