They only work a few months a year. For example, in USA they are only in session a few days until November, with all of October off.
Have you ever watched them in session? Even when they’re “working” it’s like 90% dead time, moving at a snail’s pace.
What other job pays almost 200K a year, with half of the year off, the very best of health care included, and you can take time off whenever you’d like? Months! …and that job ensures you’ll always be able to out-perform the very best with your “insightful” stock trading?.. and you can appoint your husband as the “ambassador of Bermuda”, and travel to Bermuda on the taxpayer’s dime?
The Democrats are swimming in this shit just like “The Nazis”. Just look at them. Revolting trash, the lot.
I vote, you should vote… but never forget, they are contemptuous vipers who will backstab you and everyone standing with you without a second thought. They won’t even remember your name.
Campaigning to keep that job gets more time than the actual job. They consider it part of what we pay them for, which is utter bullshit.
The whole thing is set up completely wrong in the US. Campaign ads should be prohibited outside of a few weeks before election day. Two year terms are horrible because it means even more campaigning. Revoke citizens united, give both the house and senate 4 year terms and a few other changes to campaign finance laws in particular, and you could have a reasonable congress.
The Great Stink 1858 caused by the combination of everyone dumping their refuse into the river Thames and unusually low water levels, was being mostly ignored by the British parliament until the members were forced to return to work in the parliament building close to the river where the smell was at its worst.
I’m sorry who the fuck has a $1000 deductible??? We have decent insurance for the US and the deductible is $7500 each (family plan thru employment)…
If you make like <=25k/year (individual), subsidizes make it possible…
My last two jobs had really great insurance with no deductible and little to no premium paid by me. Really lucked out when I had a bone breaking accident.
My current insurance from a rather large company is $3500 deductible in network, $6000 out of network, and $450 a month paid by me.
My insurance is fully covered by my employer. It’s rare, but it does exist.
Your employer pays your deductible?
- Retire at 70 - Yes
- Get paid $60k - No
You don’t want people in power being easy to bribe. It’s bad enough as it is.
They already are. They never stop being greedy. Just look at Trump - he’s in the top seat, and it’s still not even close to satisfying his unquenchable thirst.
It applies to staffers too. A lot of staffers are already making only $60k. In DC, you need 3-4 roommates to afford rent on that salary. Also, these are people with law degrees.
Guess what happens when they get a job offer from a lobbying firm offering $400k? Suddenly their principles are negotiable.
Agreed, but you don’t stop it by paying them less.
Yeah, about that enforcement part… Never gonna happen without some major upheaval.
Or just vote for the right people.
When the “right people” rarely are even an option - especially one that enough of the general populace can be convinced to vote for - that’s not getting us anywhere.
Pay them less and the rich people will be an option even more rarely because only people already rich can get in.
Salary will have unintended consequences.
Why would anyone choose that job unless they were already very wealthy?
People who want to enact change. You can find plenty of those they just don’t have any visibility because money.
I think everyone wants to “enact change”.
The problem is, the people with the requisite skills can earn much more than $60k doing something else.
In fact, it’s pretty much already that. While a representative makes a decent salary at $174k/year, that’s not really that much in the scheme of things. Most folks who could swing that job could swing a higher paying one, depending on the location.
So already you kind of either must want to do the job for the sake of doing the job, or (the more usual), the position has a lot of room for various ‘extracurricular’ income, whether it’s bribery or bribery adjacent in the now, promises of future cushy private sector jobs in exchange for favors now, or ability to cash in on the fame with book deals and speaking engagements in the closest to innocuous ulterior motives associated with the position.
The problem isn’t age, it’s corruption and entrenchment.
We need term limits for Congress.
Let’s also start forcing them to work forty hours.
they spend most of thier time "begging’ for more money from donors, for thier campaigns.
That would further incentivize their corruption
I disagree. Everyone believes that people are greedy and their only goal in life is money hoarding. But if you ask them what their own goals are, getting filthy rich has very, very low priority.
If politicians are greedy, that’s because 1) to become a politician (in the USA), you already have to be rich, and 2) if politicians are paid lots of money, greedy people want to become politicians.
You don’t want to attract greedy assholes to represent you, but that’s exactly what you’re doing if you pay them too much. The people you do want to be politicians are those who aren’t interested in money.
Politicians aren’t paid lots of money, at least not by the government.
They have legitimate travel expenses and need a place to stay while in session and DC is not cheap. $60k would simply make the temptation to take money greater. You dont want your represetative broke and struggling. Their current pay being too high in not a problem because its not. Their ability to trade with insider knowledge and be corrupted by lobbyists and billionaires is.
Thry should get a massive salary but be strictly banned from all other forms of income.
Nobody working for government should get rich.
Making politicians even more susceptible to corruption. Great populism. Populism tends to serve the roch after all.
Why are you all so eager to prop up the corpse of a dead system? I genuinely can’t make any sense of it.
I just want them to tell me what stocks to buy.
70? They shouldnt be electable after 60!
Make it 70, but they have to live off the same pensions as everyone else after 60 years old.
Remember it’s not just the Republicans both sides of the aisle got their pockets loaded with bribe money to not change any of the laws. You get Jeffries on national TV crying about the usual Democratic talking points having everyone shake their head and saying not this shit again. Clearly he does not give a fuck about the $40,000 to $80,000 crowd they can eat cake. He wants to help the poor and there’s nothing wrong with that but the main priority is helping everybody but don’t forget the middle ground which they always do.
The idea behind a high salary for representatives is that they don’t need to take on extra money from lobbyists to survive. Keep the salaries, but make bribery illegal again and things will get better. Make the salaries low AND get the money out of politics and you’ll only get rich people becoming politicians. Oh and term limits should be a thing.
Bribery is still illegal. But it’s not a “bribe” unless it’s paid directly to the politician in exchange for something specific (quid pro quo). So you just need to obfuscate that deal enough so that you can’t prove it’s a bribe, in the legal sense. (SuperPACs, etc).
Just pay well in advance of whatever you ask for and it’s fine apparently
Tbf yes, that’s what I meant. The legal form of bribery, shouldn’t be.
99% of a lawyers job is to find loopholes in the law.
Yes, and thus we should endeavor to find and close the loopholes as they come up.
