Posted on 08/30/2011 6:04:58 AM PDT by wyowolf
If you’re a mid-level office drone type, and have a mortgage back home of $2000/ mo, it gets tight quick if you have a family.
Instead I support the the idea of legislation by web conference, only meeting in DC maybe for a few weeks once or twice a year.
There was a reason they used to call it “serving”...and how would you ever think paying them a million dollars a year would improve anything?
We have soldiers that get paid squat for putting their lives on the line for the bad decisions these overpaid miscreants make.
If they don’t like the salary then they are free to quit. Or, better yet, go ahead and vote themselves a massive pay raise. Per the 27th Amendment they will have to face their constituents before they see any of the increase.
Here’s a thought; consider Congress a traveling job, not a relocation. Leave the family at home to live among the little people. They have special tax breaks for their second homes, if my memory serves me right.
You could triple congressional salaries and they wouldn't be any harder to buy.
Read it again...
very slowly...
and read all of it this time...
and remember that Ted Kennedy had a staff off over 60 people...
My solution would cut the budget by BILLIONS!
My thought was basically to save the DC travel for annual budget time and maybe one other major legislative session, and meet via webconferences, etc. for the remainder of the time. A camera system could be set up right in the Capitol, manned by a few staffers at most times, and whenever a particular congresscritter is talking, every other screen will show that person’s speaking, etc.
Kind of like a big Skype session.
Agree... Well said !
If a state wants a 60 person staff for their congress critter let them fund it.
Also make em all pass a BAT test an a drug wizz quiz randomly just like others in critical positions in the military or goobermint high security jobs.
Congress has done more damage to America over time than any “weaponry” or classified document disclosures...
My point was that if they ARE CEO’s, and can’t continue their previous job, it’s not just their sacrifice, but their family’s too.
My webconference idea would allow them to keep their regular jobs in many cases, and the salaries could be lower as a result.
They’re paid too much. And if they keep crying about it, vote ‘em out!
$174k salary... let's say 1/3rd is paid in taxes, leaving us with $116k after-tax.
Let's use conservative numbers, $2000/mo. mortgage at home plus $1500/mo. for an apartment in DC, for $3500/mo. in housing costs. That's $42,000/year total, leaving the Congressman with $74,000/year after housing expenses is paid.
That's more than twice what the average American lives on even before taxes and housing is paid, and keep in mind we are assuming that the spouse generates no income and there are no other sources of income such as investments.
If a Congressman is going to assert they can't live comfortably on those numbers, how the hell do they think the rest of us feel?
Yes.
They should NOT be paid at all by the Federal Government. That is a clear conflict of interest.
They should be paid by their States and/or Districts. Likewise, their States and Districts should cover their expenses.
“Show me a politician who is poor, and I’ll show you a poor politician.”
DC is a cesspool. Perhaps it was inevitable, and perhaps a miracle that the Constitution and the overly optimistic political theory of Publius that stands behind it took even this long to completely corrupt, but it is truly beyond saving now. The momentum of the Titanic-like forces behind the sytemic corruption is not going to be turned around by any crew or any amount of ocean-going tugs, and especially not by the drunken passengers dancing and fornicating throughout the passageways.
No, you can pay the Congressional Crew a dime a day or a million in official salary and benefits - doesn’t make any difference now. The route to the nearest lifeboats and the chance to grab some personal possessions and emergency supplies on the way ought to be what occupies our thoughts and our discourse now.
I did read it very slowly and carefully.
Not let me re-iterate.
They shouldn’t get paid squat. They should have to pay for their own traveling, pay for their own staff, pay for their own health-care, etc...
My solution cut the budget by BILLIONS MORE!
Not realistic. It this day and age only Millionaires would be able to afford to be in Congress. I want to get more ordinary people in Congress not make it even more elite.
We need to end career politicians...it shouldn’t be a career. It should be someone who has been successful in life and is willing to volunteer to make the country better than how they found it.
As George Washington felt...they had to drag him back into service and his biggest fear: He didn’t want to do something that would forever tarnish his name...
Wouldn’t it be nice if we just had ONE person in office that actually had that belief?
In fact, it's time to stop "legislator" as a profession.
TERM LIMITS.
If the pay is so bad how come these legislators do everything in their power to get re-elected term after term? $174,000 is way too much based on the poor legislation that is being produced.
That is a seperate issue called term limits.
Further I am still not cofortable with allowing only rich people in office. I want Joe The Plumber and Henry the Farmer in Congress.
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