Retiring House Republican says $174,000 isn't enough money for members of Congress: 'Most of us don't have wealth'
Retiring House Republican says $174,000 isn't enough money for members of Congress: 'Most of us don't have wealth'
He's not alone: AOC and others have argued lawmakers should be paid more in order to protect against corruption and make the job more accessible.
Rank-and-file members of both the House and Senate are paid $174,000 a year.
That probably seems like a decent amount of money, and it is: The median household income in 2022 was $74,580, according to the US Census.
But consider that members of Congress generally have to maintain two residences — one in Washington, DC, and one in their home state — and that they haven't gotten a raise since 2009.
Inflation, meanwhile, has eaten away at the value of that salary over time: If lawmakers' salaries had kept pace with inflation, they would be paid over $250,000 today.
Rep. Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican who served as the interim speaker of the House following Kevin McCarthy's ouster, told The Dispatch that congressional pay needed to be raised in order to attract "credible people to run for office."
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This isn't as wild as it sounds.
A family friend was elected to Congress, and he had been an HVAC contractor prior to his election, and the move to DC was financially difficult because DC housing is very expensive and they still had a mortgage back in their district.
How did he work things out? He started accepting donations, and that's as slippery slope. He's become as corrupt as they come and I'm ashamed to have been his friend.
Now if only states maintained congressional residences in DC so their congressmen don't find themselves saddled with +million-dollar mortgages on homes they might only be living in for 2 or 4 years.
Really, if you're sitting on a million-dollar mortgage and you might be primaried in your next election if you don't play ball with the lobbyists (or more to the point, you'd have to keep paying it after your tenure in congress ends) isn't that just bending freshman congressmen over a barrel to be corrupted?
Conversely, imagine the scenario if you lose your re-election bid and in order to pursue the post-congress lobbying career you'd have to buy yourself a new home in DC.
Normalize getting the fuck out of DC when you're out of office, guys/make it expensive to stay on
I've long said there should be a congressional dorm. Two, maybe four to a room, they share a bathroom with the room next door, one of those fridges with a microwave bolted to the top, cameras in the hallways.
Why is congress being treated like college freshmen?
Seems a little rude.
We could pack all of them into a Quonset hut, each one gets a twin-size bunk and a foot locker like your average soldier. Maybe we should issue them mandatory identical clothing too.
Honestly I've read that a lack of interaction between members of Congress has lead to a part of our extreme politics lately. They used to have dinners and such together and with enough interaction even representitives from opposite parties would become friends/friendly.
Maybe having a Democrat and Republican share a room isn't such a bad idea lol although some people eventually hate their roommates so... Mixed bag I guess lol
Your asking a group of the most powerful people in the nation to live in dorms.
That would lead to even more clique behavior. Mean Girls with diplomatic immunity. Fun times.
Im sure investment tips would never be shared or colluded around.
And they would all be in one central location for the lobbists to come hand out bribes. Or terrorists to strike.
As for a uniform as some suggest, i prefer the George Carlin idea of NASCAR style patches worn for each corporate donor.
But treating congress people like children or soilders in basic training is just demonstrating a lack of proper thought on the matter.
Make them all live like in 12 Monkeys.
Just go the full monty and make it a cult.
They can sell soap for re-election funds.
Taxpayers shouldn't have to pay out the ass just so they can live a nicer life than the rest of us while they continually make far more than us and don't try to govern properly (like raising our minimum wage).
If normal people need a bunch of roommates to afford DC, the less well-off Congressmen can deal with something similar until they have made enough good financial decisions to get something nicer, just like the rest of us do.
Also if someone sucks at making financial decisions, I honestly don't think they should be in a position to decide fiscal legislation for the entire country, it's clearly not a skill in their wheelhouse and that's not the place to acquire that skill.
The problem is only the wealthy could afford to hold office.
Does rule by the 1% sound like a good idea?
Frankly the people advocating to force minimum wage living conditions on congress people are not respecting the problem or must be some of those "accelerationists" that just want everything to fall apart so it can get worse before it gets better.
I get that (most) people are upset with Do Nothing Congress 2: Insurrectionist Boogaloo, but to replace them with minimum wage rookies and blue blood elites raised to run the world is not a good idea. Its extremely stupid.
Not that I'm (seriously) advocating for them to go into a dorm, but these people decide their salaries.
If they were doing their job properly they would have raised it, or better yet they would have established a higher-end apartment-dorm type solution that is paid for by the state and so their paychecks are not used to cover their living expenses in DC (not college freshman standards, more like two bedroom apartments unless they want to pony up part of their paycheck, one for a bed and one for an office).
They're not actually doing either of these things though, so I hardly feel bad.
This is an extremely high quality take! We have governors mansions in some (all?) States, the president gets the white house, but what do elected officials at the national level get?
Exactly. Paying them $10 milion a year would be a drop in the bucket to the us gov (about 0.1% of the budget).
And if it made them immune to lobbying and work for the people properly, it would be money well spent.
Unfortunately, I am not convinced raising their salary would help that much.