The pay is too good.
Revolving door jobs with lobbyists pay better than congressional jobs...just saying...watch what these folks do when they “retire”.
The pay sucks, the benes are all they are in it for.
Most of these people made way more than $175K but this job allows them the right to steal with both hands.
The few good guys do it for the Country, the very few do it for the money, most do it for the power and having hundreds of their flunkies pick'en shit with the chickens so they can look good to 'the folks'.
A few grifters like AOC and the squad are welfare cheats so a couple of hundred thousand looks like all of the money in the world, and are willing to sell what little they have left of their souls for money.
They are rare, and they will only last because of pigmentation.
Republicans have lives outside of politics.