Freezing congressional salaries, as inflation has slashed their income over time, while they must maintain two homes and work in one of the pricier cities in the nation, is a great way to ensure that only independently wealthy folk run for Congress.https://t.co/GAqcTYwN2p
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) June 13, 2019
Freezing congressional salaries, as inflation has slashed their income over time, while they must maintain two homes and work in one of the pricier cities in the nation, is a great way to ensure that only independently wealthy folk run for Congress.
https://t.co/GAqcTYwN2p
We already have a problem with Congress being the playground of millionaires (of both parties); freezing congressional salaries (which has a knock-on effect on the salaries of aids, too) only makes this problem worse.
Yeah, I know, everyone hates Congress. But we’re stuck with it as an institution, and the public always seems much more eager to vote out other folks’ reps than their own. Given that, is Congress likely to improve if it’s only the realm of the independently wealthy, folk who don’t need to care about what congressional salaries are?
Consider that working as a Representative or a Senator means having to maintain two households, one at the home district and one in DC. Yeah, being a congresscritter has a lot of perqs, but it also carries a lot of expense — something that “ordinary” people might not be able to swing if the salary doesn’t support it.
Congressional salaries are supposed to include a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) to keep up with inflation and avoid arguments about Congress getting raises. But congressfolk who are (a) sensitive to optics or (b) wanting to be seen as fiscal hawks, as well as (c) not dependent on those raises … they’ve have kept that from happening.
Lawmakers have voted since 2009 to block their annual pay raise, which some are now trying to change this year since the cost of living has skyrocketed since then. […] The Congressional Research Service estimated that, when adjusted for inflation, lawmaker salaries have decreased 15 percent since the last pay increase in 2009.
Again, you don’t like Congress? They serve two-year or six-year (depending on the chamber) contracts — feel free to give them their walking papers at that time if they aren’t doing the job you want them to. But choking off their pay isn’t going to make them any better — it’s just going to make them less representative.
Which, y’know, kind of defeats the purpose.
Do you want to know more?
Two notes from the Twitter comments:
- If Congress came with a housing stipend (adjusted for real estate inflation), that would cover much of my concern here.
- Alternately, if we built a Congressional Dormitory, I see sitcom gold!