By WAYNE GREENE Senior Writer on Jan 11, 2010, at 3:58 PM Updated on 1/11 at 3:58 PM
WAYNE'S WORLD
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World file
If I had been thinking strategically, I wouldn't have published
a column slamming state legislators for accepting their paychecks on the day before I went to a chamber of commerce luncheon where I would be seated between two state legislators.
So much for thinking strategically.
The two lawmakers – nameless here – were very adult about the whole thing. One mentioned it jokingly. The other one asked me what I did for the Tulsa World.
The day's speaker, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, used the podium to call out the Tulsa World (generically and otherwise) on a couple of occasions. I figured on that when I sat down.
But he also had a few words about members of Congress accepting pay raises (and handing out raises to their staffs) during a recession.
"This is an elective job," Coburn said. "You don't have to do it."
When members of Congress accept pay hikes, it demonstrates how "unconnected" they are to the thinking of the nation.
He said he has turned back about $600,000 a year to the U.S. treasury in money he could have give to his staff in raises, which made him not so popular with his staff, but right in his own mind, he said.
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