Sorry, but I can't go along with you on that one...
IMHO, the folks on capital hill are increasingly distant and out of touch with the hard realities back in the home districts.
Many of the professional polititians don't even return to the district that hired them when they don't win reelection (e.g., Tim Hutchinson, AR).
Instead of a $1M raise, I'd like to try witholding a paycheck or two to get their attention once in a while and breath a fresh whiff of reality into their special interest brown-nosing nostrils.
But that won't work—most members of Congress are already millionaires, far beyond the realm where witholding a $10,000 paycheck or two will have any effect at all. For one thing, campaigning for office is a year-long full-time job, and you have to be fairly well-off to even contemplate it. For another thing, you cannot run for office without raising money, and to raise money you have to have wealthy friends you can tap for support, and most people with wealthy friends are themselves wealthy. Even those in Congress who are not already millionaires can expect to see their private-sector incomes shoot up when they leave office, as they go on to lobbying firms and other cushy "revolving door" positions.
The problem with politics isn't money, it's power, and the only answer is to cut back that power—which, coincidentally enough, is exactly what the Constitution was intended to do.