The question is as valid and current as it always has been: Why should members of Congress get pay and benefit increases when they can’t create a balanced budget? If their packages were tied to better fiscal management, wouldn’t they be far more judicious and prudent about spending other people’s money?

The U.S. House of Representatives allowed a plan recently that will raise members’ salaries by 2 percent to $168,500. The median household income in 2004 was $53,692, says the U.S. Census Bureau.

“Good luck finding information about the pay raise bill if you don’t know where to look,” says an editorial in the Cherry Hill, N.J., Courier-Post. “It’s tucked away in legislation to fund the Department of Transportation agencies. If members of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives think they deserve this raise, why didn’t they do it in the light of day?”

The Courier-Post notes that the federal minimum wage now is $5.15 an hour. It has not been raised since 1997. During the same period, however, annual congressional pay has increased by $31,000.

It doesn’t take an accounting genius to deduce there is something terribly wrong about all this, particularly the way the House and Senate so frequently sneak by pay and benefit boosts, knowing full well they will be chastised when so many fellow citizens are battling tight budgets and shrinking resources.

Most Americans would not be the least bit critical of congressional pay increases if they thought their tax money was being used more sensibly by the people getting the raises. Living in and around Washington and managing offices and contact staffs is costly and merits proper funding. But when the national lawmakers so consistently add to their packages so surreptitiously and yet allow our budget imbalance to keep growing, displeasure is understandable.

As for how Congress can do something about the waste and misuse of federal money, the answer is terribly simple: When outgo exceeds income, there is a deficit, whether it is in a family or a governmental operation. These people who keep benefiting themselves regardless of what’s in the cash drawer are out of line.

Questions about congressional pay raises while the budget deficit grows continue to cry out for a decent response.