Here’s another installment of the GAS - the newsletter that's as tasty as your favorite sushi platter - but without the wasabi burn.

Here’s what we have for you today…

• AOC and MJT Actually Agree on Something?

• The War on Farmers Could Make French Fries Disappear

• Trump Pitches Income Tax Swap for Tariffs

• Must Watch: Tom Brady’s Awesome Speech

AOC and MJT Actually Agree on Something

Hell has not yet frozen over (global warming and all that) but still, Marjorie Taylor Green and AOC agree on something, and both are advocating for it:

Both Members of Congress are pushing for a raise. 

Americans are struggling with astronomical costs of living. The economy ranks among the top issues for voters, as we watch our tax dollars go to paying for Ukrainian pensions and wars we don’t want, we see illegals welcomed with our hard-earned money paying for their passage, cell phones, food, and shelter. We even see our government paying for plastic surgeries for illegals. 

Throw in millions of dollars pulled from taxpayer funds to prosecute Trump while Jill BIden flies back and forth from France to be at Hunter’s trial (the Democrat Party wound up having to reimburse for that trip after public outrage), “forgiving” student loans, and funding abortions.

So while it’s always dicey for Congress to navigate the optics of giving itself a raise, doing so now would probably be among the stupidest moves it could make.

There are two other options for Congress to get a raise: recommendations from the President, and annual adjustments. 

The last time Members of Congress got a raise was in January 2009. At that time, their salary was increased by 2.8%, to $174,000 -  nearly triple the $65,470 average pay for US workers- (although the Speaker of the House gets $223,000 and the President pro tempore of the Senate and the majority and minority leaders in the House and Senate make $193,400. )

And of course, the health insurance benefits as well as all the perks and fanciness that go with being a Congress or Senate Member, not to mention the fact that several of them have multi-million dollar portfolios.

On the table now is a  maximum potential January 2025 adjustment is 3.8%, which would result in a salary of $180,600, an increase of $6,600.

Had Congress received regular raises as per the Employment Cost Index (ECI), Members would be making $243,300. 

Many vulnerable incumbents are smart enough to recognize the risk of voting for a raise right now. But others, like MJT and AOC, will vote on moving ahead with a pay raise later this week, arguing that a salary bump after years of inflation is crucial to retaining and attracting “economically diverse candidates.”

”House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said.  “We have lost some really great members over this…..To me, we ought to do what we did with the courts and others and hold the talent that we have.”

“Talent” is one word for it, I suppose. Certainly, many of them appear to have a talent for predicting the stock market. Because of course their windfalls there have nothing to do with insider trading. 

I believe Americans would prefer to see Congress vote on giving itself term limits before any pay raise is on the table.

The War on Farmers Continues- and This One Could Make French Fries Disappear

“Want fries with that?” 

Well, that might not be a thing anymore if this war on farmers is allowed to continue. 

The latest shot fired in this war is being felt in Idaho, where farmers are facing millions of dollars in losses and could even see their land dry up thanks to the potential of their water being shut off. 

This impacts all farmers on about 500,000 acres of land, from beef to potatoes. 

A dispute about who gets to use the water flowing through the state is seeing farmers on the losing end, and the state of Idaho is issuing a water curtailment that would not only kill cattle and farmland but would result in millions of dollars of economic losses while ruining more of America’s farmers. 

Brian Murdock, an Easter Idaho farmer, explained in media interviews that he’s considered a small farmer, but he grows 23 million large orders of McDonald's french fries and grain for 16 million loaves of bread on his farm. All of this is threatened by the government’s water distribution.  

The Idaho Department of Water resources, together with the State of Idaho, will take about 781 square miles of farmland out of production by turning off the spigots to farmers. Adding to the insanity is that Idaho is having a great year for water, with reservoirs overflowing and rivers running high, Murdock explained. 

The government is defending its decision, citing complicated issues that are not always obvious to people.

In a recent press release, Gov. Brad Little said: "What people cannot see, especially in a ‘good’ water year, is what’s underground – the ongoing dwindling supply of water in the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer. Water from the aquifer feeds the Snake River. Like we do as Idahoans, we are coming together and building some momentum around efforts to get ground water users in compliance with an approved mitigation plan." 

Murdock isn’t buying it, though. The governor "has the ability and the constitution to end this curtailment. That’s part of his role and part of his job," Murdock said. 

He believes that he and fellow farmers in the state are being "checkmated legally.”

—
Barb Allen
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