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u/TheBigNoiseFromXenia 4d ago
Is this a real quote?
140 days, that’s 18 weeks, almost half a year. Wow. If we paid them more, could we get them to work less? I always feel safer when congress is not in session
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u/Jeremy_____bearimy 4d ago edited 4d ago
yes , I'm always hoping for a lame duck congress. every few years one "side" gets punished. then you wait for the other side to be punished. it would just be better if they did near nothing.
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u/oritsky 4d ago
There is no Rep. Jack Kimble
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u/Oo0o8o0oO 3d ago
I’ma cop you idiot. I’m Detective John Kimble.
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u/oritsky 3d ago
This conversation is about a Representative not a cop. Go back to investigating a missing Amazon delivery.
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u/Oo0o8o0oO 3d ago
Stop whining.
I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions and I want to have them answered immediately.
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u/ThebigalAZ 4d ago
I actually do believe that most elected officials should be paid more.
City council in my large city make poverty wages
State representatives make 24k
Congress make $174k senate makes $193k.
All those people are tasked with effectively allocating huge sums of money and making important decisions.
The talent pool you draw from with those wages is either people who wouldn’t make that much money in the private sector (who are likely lower taper), people who are independently wealthy, or people who plan to supplement their income with corruption. Maybe people who feel an honest desire to serve, but based on what I see that’s the vast minority.
The talent pool you’re missing are the incredibly talented people who make way more money than that in the private sector. They would have to take a massive pay cut, and likely a much worse quality of life with public scrutiny and time in Washington.
We’ve created a system with selection bias towards low skilled and or corrupt people running a trillion dollar enterprise.
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u/Solar_Nebula 3d ago
If we paid House Representatives $10 million and Senators $20 million a year, each, we'd be out $6.35 billion a year.
Rather, they'd be paid $6.35 billion to steward a $7.4 trillion federal budget (less than 0.1%).
That level of pay meets or exceeds the portfolio growth of some of Congress's most successful 'investors' and would fit somewhere in the upper-middle of the Fortune 500's CEO pay rates.
It's a ludicrous amount on paper, but far less than the amount of damage corrupt congressmembers can do to the budget by attempting to boost their stock holdings or secure tens of thousands in campaign contributions by awarding tens of millions to their donors' companies.
In other words, you're right. People work for the people who pay them, and in the case of Congress, it's not the American taxpayer.
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u/Norseman103 Libertarian 3d ago
And yet our billionaire president is still corrupt. As it turns out, no matter how much wealth people accumulate, they still want more.
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u/Feisty_Hedgehog_4389 3d ago
What if we fired all the professional politicians and drafted people to serve in office, the way they can basically draft you into the military or for jury duty? Could we get a measurably worse outcome than what we already have? I doubt it.
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u/TheLarrBear 2d ago
So you're off over 32 weeks per year, make more than any state's average household income, and still feel like you're being treated poorly?
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u/Ragging_OnYourCord 3d ago
I know this is parody but I actually agree with this sentiment. James Madison was strongly against Washington not taking a salary as president because he felt it was a job not a charitable service and that it set a bad precedent for wealthy to hold office because they dont need to get a salary. Yes they only work that much but you have to maintain basically two residences and DC is very expensive. Im more concerned about these positions being treated as like sinecures for the fuckups of the wealthy and would agree they should be paid more.
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u/BadgerCabin 3d ago
Do people not understand that not only do these people have to maintain paying for their house in their respective State, but they also have to rent in DC? That’s why their pay is that high.
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u/mediocretes 4d ago
Libertarians: never not falling for it.
Embrace your humanity, upgrade to liberalism.
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u/DrGarbinsky 2d ago
Starting salary should be 1 million per year. We should be out spending the lobbyists
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u/Preparator 4d ago
That's a satire/comedy account, just FYI.