With that the Republican control of Congress, lasting 12 years in the House, would be over, setting the stage for the 110th Congress to convene in January with Democrats in the majority in both the House and the Senate.
In one sign of the approaching Democratic rise to power, future House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, succeeded in attaching to the funding bill language stopping a $3,300 raise members of Congress were to automatically receive on Jan. 1.
They said it was unconscionable that lawmakers get another raise when the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 an hour for the past 10 years.
That pretty much sums up the Republican reign in congress: tax breaks for the rich, pay increases for the fat cats in congress, and pay decreases for the working poor.
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