According to the News & Observer, all of North Carolina’s federal representatives voted against the possibility of a Congressional pay raise except for one person: NC-12′s Mel Watt.

The bill, HR 5146, would for all intents and purposes entirely prohibit a Congressional pay raise in January, which is usually standard procedure to accommodate cost of living changes. The salary amounts, according to the News & Observer:

[...] $174,000 for rank-and-file members, $193,400 for the House and Senate majority and minority leaders and the Senate president pro tempore, and $223,500 for the House speaker. Other top federal salaries are $400,000 for the president, $230,700 for the vice president, $223,500 for the chief justice, $213,900 for associate Supreme Court justices, $199,700 for Cabinet officers, $184,500 for appellate judges and $174,000 for district judges.

In colloquial terms? A whole big chunk ‘o change. Of course, that doesn’t mean most Congressmen are rolling around in cash — between having two residences (one back home, which is required, and one in DC) and having to pay for typically expensive DC food all the time, typical Congressmen typically don’t have exorbitant amounts of cash on hand. However, when the economy drops (like it’s been doing now), Congressmen can live like kings — after all, things become cheaper. That’s not even considering the fact that most (not all) Congressmen usually have significant nest eggs from prior jobs (as most were well paid before they became Congressmen), meaning they do pretty well for themselves. No matter how you twist it, though, $174k is a lot of money — why does Watt suddenly want more, especially when there is no inflation to adjust for?

And, thankfully, everyone in NC, on both sides of the aisle, voted for the block — that is to say, they refused the pay raise. Except for Mel Watt. Watt’s not poor by any stretch — he attended Yale Law and practiced law for over 20 years. Watt’s also pretty notorious for being pretty shady with money — just last year, he ran seriously afoul of Rep. Ron Paul after cutting out lots of parts of a Federal Reserve auditing and transparency bill, which he edited to protect shady practices on the part of banks (many of which comprising his campaign donors).

I have no idea what Watt’s rationale for voting for a pay raise is — by all means, it likely doesn’t matter, as it has already passed the House and the Senate. Still, I’d like to know why in the world he thinks $174k isn’t sufficient pay when a huge percentage of his state doesn’t even have a job in the first place.