JASON RYLANDER has very handsomely revised and extended his remarks on Congressional pay raises in light of the fact that I had said the exact opposite of the view he attributed to me. He also addresses Jeff Hauser’s claim that it’s not a raise, but a COLA. I don’t buy that either. I got a three percent raise this year, which was basically a COLA, but it was called a “raise.” Everyone (not just conservative Congress-bashers, of which Hauser too seems to think I am one) has been calling this a pay raise.

My own feeling is that it violates the spirit, and probably the letter, of the 27th Amendment however you choose to characterize it.