Pre '07 in Office was the hanging fruit.  As long as Senate Majority Leader Richardville-R, Minority Leader Whitmer-D, along with Pappageorge-R, Green-R, Jansen-R, Robertson-R, and House Rep. Gilbert-R were exempted in talks between the House and Senate; the deal was thus cut.

And why.

Amendment offered by Rep. Dian Slavens (D) on June 22, 2011, to repeal the benefit for all current legislators. Reportedly, eight current lawmakers will still qualify under the House-passed bill (Sens. Anderson, Green, Jansen, Pappageorge, Richardville, Robertson and Whitmer, and Rep. Jud Gilbert). The amendment failed by voice vote in the House on June 22, 2011.

There's your deal made so as 4087 is to fly in SEIU Randy's Hizzy.

That's incredible!

Where have these people been for all of this time?

I find it amazing that since elected officials are now in the cross-hairs, the Constitution suddenly matters.

After observing the aftermath of Pres. GWB's & B.O.'s nationalizing of the auto industry, and to a degree the banks, and I'll cede the point you've made above. Those are tactics of the enemy, and for the reasons you've made above, I don't want to subscribe to them.

However, for elected officials to argue that sacrifices must be made, while simultaneously making sure that they are protected from having to make any sacrifices themselves, just screams of naked hypocrisy! To conform to the arguments above, I'll change my recommendation so that the cutoff date on the bill be changed to apply to all current serving elected officials and those elected in the future. We'll definitely see something better that $20,000 in savings.