I say give them a raise and shame them into doing better
I say the opposite. Cut their perks and privileges to the bone. Get rid of the gym, the restaurant, the gov’t-backed AMEX card, and reduce their pay to (at most) the national average.
The problem with Congresscritters and Senatebores is they get so addicted to the pomp and circumstance, not to mention assorted goodies, that come with their job that they forget what they were hired to do.
The Founding Fathers were adamantly against the idea of a professional political class and tried to arrange things so that service in government would be view, at best, as a noble but unpleasant duty — one to be fulfilled faithfully and diligently, but something that would be put aside with good cheer and relief when the time had finished.
Congressmen have no shame. If they did, they would be working in a gay whorehouse, just to rebuild their reputations.
They haven’t done anything to merit the pay they get now.
If they were the dedicated public servants,they make themselves out to be, then they should consent to work for an hourly wage at a rate most Americans are paid. Let them earn it.