A Modest Proposal
Dunno if if I’ve proposed this here before, but an exchange with Laughing_Wolf on FB prompted me to bring it up again.
My proposal is simply that OUR Congress Critters be paid exactly the same as our military. Live in barracks… eat in mess halls, etc.
Now it IS extremely unlikely that The Pampered Princes (and Princesses) on The Potomac would do this themselves.
With that baseline how would YOU suggest we (the great unwashed) approach this?
I’m thinking we might have some luck at the state level, but The Constitution has limited guidance here.
I’m looking for a pragmatic approach while we still may have a say?
Category: Congress sucks, Geezer Alert!
On your plan — I like it though I would stipulate that the pay starts at E-1 and can only go as high as E-5. Same mess too. Peg the pay to the level of 2008.
The photo I had liked and shared called for them to be paid minimum wage. I like that, but would caveat that it should be pegged to the minimum wage of 2008; that congress could no longer vote to increase minimum wage, but could only recommend and the Citizens have to vote to approve by supermajority. Citizens could also vote by supermajority to lower pay. Also, no budget, no doing their job, no pay. I would say no job, but that should be left to the States I think.
In short, make serving a duty and an honor again, not a sinecure.
Not the current Single Soldier Initiative barracks either. The open bay, footlocker and wall locker, everyone uses the same latrine barracks. You answer your own phone, you answer your own mail, you wash your own clothes.
And term limits would not be a problem.
Term Limits would eradicate most problems. Politics should be a public service not a lucrative career.
This can be implemented as soon as the current system collapse, which i am hoping is before i am too old to shoot, move, and communicate.
Just an Old Dog #3: Won’t disagree with you one whit. Thing is term limits is a currently failed approach. Oddly, I thought that the lefties would have jumped on that bandwagon during the Bush year, but no.
Instead of term limits – remove the special retirement and health care. Let Kongress contribute to their own retirement funds ans Social Security. Let Kongress buy their own health care on the open market. Remove all other money pit special perks- the bank, the barbershop, whatever else.
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@2&3, YOU BET!! I’d love to get elected to Congress, and I’d make enemies out of every lifer there in no time, the first proposal I’d make would be for a Constitutional Amendment, and it would be this:
Time of Service for any and all individuals elected to Congress shall be limited to a total of twelve years. Senators shall be limited to two six year terms, members of the House of Representatives’ service time shall not exceed six two year terms. If one should go from one section of Congress to the other, from the House to the Senate, or vice versa, their total amount of time in service in both sections combined shall not exceed twelve years.
I’d say take them out for live fire exercises, too. If the thought of injury from a possible stray bullet or errant mortar shell deters you from political office, then you probably didn’t have the ‘right stuff’ to begin with.
I would strongly support this action, especially if it applied to our troops being sent into a shooting war. From the time they are sent every member of congress would earn the pay of a private, and the pay of the grunts would start at the pay of a first year congressman. I don’t think we’d have lives wasted on long drawn out wars without the purpose of victory.
Proof, LAPD Duke, I agree, and I’d top it off by making them do repeated patrols “outside the wire” with Light infantry Units, and put them on missions that would have them spending nights “downrange” as well!
Selena Coppafeel.
1) Make every Representative subject to the laws he/she are passing for the rest of us
This would pretty much stop a lot of the craziness in it’s tracks. Would Feinstein and Bloomburg propose gun bans if they could not have armed security guards 24/7?
Would Pelosi ram Obamacare down our throats if she had to use it like we did?
ZP, you need to take this to Congress as one of those week long challenges. A bunch of Congresscritters just did the ‘feed your family for 14 bucks a day challenge’ recently; they love stuff like that and it gets them free publicity.
Concur with making Congressional benefits the same as average citizen. But in addition, Congressional pay and staff budgets should be tied to financial performance. Annual deficits are equivalent of losses in business. If the deficit is 40%, Congressional pay and staff should be cut by 40%.
You might like an old proposal of mine:
Upon confirmation of winning the election, politicians are enlisted in the Army, for a term of two years. Following that term of enlistment, they are sworn in to Congress. Upon re-election, they are re-enlisted for another 2 years (with the standard reductions in rank for a break in service).
You want to get rid of the slackers, crybabies, and wierdos in Congress. A two year enlistment will go a long way towards weeding out the weak in Congress.
Elections truly would have consequences.
I don’t know or remember if you have ever suggested t here or not, but I have mentioned it to my daughter and several friends a long time ago. They ought to reduce all their perks and Obama’s too.
I would make them work 5 days a week at least and only get 30 days a year vacation. What with video conferencing there really isn’t a need for them to go back home all the time. Senator Rand Paul returned $600K to the treasury from his office budget and Senator Ayotte returned I think 15 or 20 % of her budget, so why can’t all of them do it too.
If not barracks, then one or two bedroom apartments in SW D.C.. No drivers; they pay for their own cars or take Metro or the bus.
I had another idea as well. Have Congress convene only at the following times:
1. The beginning of the year, upon which the first order of business is a budget. No budget in seven calendar days, no pay until one is in place. And no retroactive pay.
2. The end of the year.
3. Upon declaration of war or impeachment hearings.
The rest of the time, they stay in their home states. Voting and business can be conducted through secure phone lines.
Look, we can all agree that Washington is a mess right now and as been for decades.
Who’s at fault here, who let the politicians run the country into the mess we have today.
Well its you and me, your mothers and fathers, grandparents, great great grandparents,
well you get the idea, we’re all at fault, we haven’t been paying attention, we let them
get away with murder.
We have failed to recognize that we are the bosses and they are our employees, they
walk around like their something special, their not! their Americans just like us, sent to
Washington D.C. to represent us, but instead their representing themselves. So if they
can’t do their jobs, then it’s way past time to fire them. Some of these people have been
in congress and the senate for 10, 20, 30, 40 years, it’s past time to send them packing,
the job was never met to be a career, it was met to service for a short time, then go
home and get a job. Now I know some of you are saying my Senator or congressmen
has done a great job, it doesn’t matter, if their were term limits passed by the house
they wouldn’t be their anyway. Passing term limits has been tried before, and you
know it will not pass, so we will pass it for them with our votes.
I would advice all Americans to change their party from Republican and Democratic
to unaffiliated or independent. Now I know that these two parties say that most of us
are closet Republican and Democratic and lean toward the party they used to be, but I
say this would shake up the party system. George Washington was the only President
who had know party affiliation and thought political parties should not be encouraged,
he said that it would turn friends into enemies and it did and it still does.
All 435 of these seats are up for election on 4 November 2014.
To my mind, the very best way to deal with our errant Congress Critters is the following: 1.) No individual may serve more than 12 years total in either the House, Senate, or some combination thereof. 2.) No member of Congress may be exempt from any laws, regulations, etc of these United States, nor of the several states. 3.) Members of Congress shall not collect any renumeration, benefit, or etc other than their salary, and that only while in office. 4.) Each member of Congress shall receive, for their use, 1 apartment, not to exceed 2 bedrooms or 800 square feet in floor space, to be located in a complex designed for their exclusive use. 1 for the Seante, and another for the House. Members of Congress who choose NOT to live in such an apartment may live elsewhere but all such expenses will be born by themselves, and not by the people. 5.) Members of Congress shall be permitted free dining at a facility to be provided for them. Such facility will be designed, run, and staffed by US Military on active duty, and subject to all regulations, limits, recipes, etc as regular a active duty DFACs. Members of Congress desiring to eat elsewhere may do so at their own expense. 6.) Each member of Congress will be giver use of a 3-room office, with 3 staff members whose pay and benefits will be deducted from a fixed budget for all office expenses, not to exceed $200,000 per annum. 7.) Medical support for Members of Congress shall be provided at a clinic to be established, manned and operated by the US Military. Hospitalization, if required, will be provided by the US Military at the nearest military or DVA hospital provided that such care and/or treatment is at the same level provided to all other patients. Members of Congress desiring medical treatment at any other facility may do so at their own expense. Anyway, that’s the basis of my ideas on running Congress. The advantage I see for having the military run Congressional dining, medical, etc, is for training purposes,… Read more »
AW1Tim, you left out eliminate the presidential pension. It was started because Harry Truman didn’t have enough money to drive home to Joplin, MO, after he left the White House.
None of the currently alive ex-presidents actually needs the money. That includes Carter, both Bushes, and Clinton.
PH1:
Agreed. I just figured I’d work on the Congress Critters first, then get to the Executive branch afterward. 🙂
Congress is a start but immediate consideration should be made for long term welfare recipients and a good portion of those on soc. security.
You know, on the pay, I think we may be looking in the wrong direction. Instead of so drastically reducing their Congressional pay, let’s leave it at say $150k/yr, but restrict their non-Congressional income.
But seeing how national office has become a full time job of campaigning and grandstanding, all external income above the level their household made 2 years prior to taking office, minus their earned income in that year, is paid directly to the Dept of Treasury.
Why? Because a decent compensation plan is more important to someone reliant on that job for income, but in every case I’ve looked at, external income of a politician grows exponentially, from their pre-year in office to their last or current year, and goes up exponentially again when they take higher office.
The Pelosi household saw an increase in net worth of tens of millions of dollars in a single year.
One cannot help but suspect that there is a degree of corruption, whether legally or illegally acquired, when noting this.
@24 – If a politician receives megabucks as part of his campaign fund and doesn’t use it all, he can keep it and use it as personal income as long as he pays the taxes on it.
Politicians frequently do follow that. Have you ever heard of a politican returning campaign donations? Neither have I.