Pennsylvania GOP reaches out to farmers

Actually, they are just struggling to justify pay raises:

State House Speaker John M. Perzel, R-Philadelphia, went on the offensive against legislative pay raise critics on Saturday, saying lawmakers deserved the controversial hike because they work hard and often make personal sacrifices for the job.

"The people in Lancaster County who milk cows are making $50,000 to $55,000 (a year). ... You are paying a guy who milks cows $55,000, and (they're) saying it's too much to pay a member of the General Assembly half of what a member of Congress makes?" Perzel told Republican foot soldiers who had gathered here to formally endorse U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's, R-Pa., re-election bid.

The base salary for a legislator is now $81,000, which means that Perzel and company feel they are actually worth more than the average farmer.

I'm not sure how big of an issue this will be in Pennsylvanian politics, but it seems a little crass to claim to be more important than a certain sector of workers in order to justify spending taxpayers money, especially from the conservative sector who wants to yell and scream about the government spending your money.