Senators and Representatives should not be salaried.
Congresspeople should receive per diems from their state for time in DC, including housing, meals and transportation, while their staff should be provided and paid by their State. Additionally, every congresspersons office should be assigned an auditor to continuously monitor financial integrity of the staff and the Congresspersons, to ensure that nobody is abusing the office for financial gain.
Congressional service was never meant to be a career, it was meant to be a service to the people. If we can shift the financial burden to the States, the integrity and efficiency of our Representation can be regained for the benefit of the people.
I think this is a good start but would encourage more to continue to comment to better refine. As we know, we will need a well vetted proposal for it to go anywhere. I would also add this thought to have others consider if/how it could be addressed or integrated.
In a recent interview, JD Vance gave some insight on lobbyists. I’m hoping we can agree that in large part these people are toxic to our government with their own interests. (In so many words) He said what’s unfortunate is that many of the top tier, smart individuals start in politics working under politicians then move to lobbying. They gain some experience, they start networking and end up leaving to take multiple times their salary. He explained there’s caps on what they can pay their staff and it’s hard to compete with that in a town that is off the charts expensive. Therefore it adds incentives for top tier talent to move to the “dark side” and in turn works against ‘the people’.
I say all this, because I believe there should be a pay structure that services the people better but needs to consider many factors that could compete with the model and (hopefully) work to keep our brightest and best and drastically reduce the toxic lobbyist as well.
Again, welcoming more thoughts to continue baking this model.
I think that in spirit, this is a good sentiment but we can’t ignore the reality that the ability to make a good living attracts talent. I think what we should instead focus on is the “extras” that some of our representatives receive in return for their use of power/influence.