Want the Job? Great. We're Slashing the Salary

State gig to get pay cut to make Hillary eligible
By Gabriel Winant,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 5, 2008 7:48 AM CST
Want the Job? Great. We're Slashing the Salary
In this Oct. 5, 1988 file photo, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen speaks during his vice presidential debate. A similar pay cut was passed in 1993 to make Bentsen eligible for Secretary of the Treasury.   (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)

What if you got promoted, but the new job came with a pay cut? That’s Hillary Clinton’s situation, reports the Boston Globe. The Senate is planning to reverse a $5,000 January raise for the secretary of State to sidestep a constitutional clause that forbids members of Congress from taking government jobs whose salary has gone up during their elected term. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she plans to go along.

This constitutional trick has been performed before; Sen. William Saxbe took a pay hit in 1973 so he could become attorney general. Still, some on the right are complaining. While Clinton "clearly had grander ambitions when the law was signed," the Wall Street Journal editorializes, “It is no small matter to ignore the Constitution's direct words.”
(More Hillary Clinton stories.)

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