I don't begrudge elected officials receiving a COLA. It's more about timing for me. The only thing that tempers my outrage over the Congressional pay raise is that they at least had the decency to restore raises to federal workers at the same time. (I have family who are federal employees.) But for the rest of us, particularly those of us who continue to search for full time employment more than a year after being laid off, it makes you wonder what exactly our representatives are doing to earn their raise.