when debt increases, salaries go down; when debt goes down, salaries go up. I’ll let somebody smarter than me flesh out the details, but there should be consequences for running up debt and rewards for decreasing/eliminating the debt.
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I tend to agree, but their salaries should be tied to the annual budget instead. My thought was a way to get rid of this constant “Partial Government Shutdown” threat by tying their pay to passing a balanced budget before the start of the fiscal year, no balanced budget on time, automatic pay cut for the entire fiscal year, and no Cost of Living or other increases for 3 years.
I fully fleshed out the idea in another thread:
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Hear Hear! I was thinking the same when I heard they incorporated a pay raise in the CR. No budget? Take a pay cut of 12%. No budget after another fiscal year? 25% pay cut. Do it a third time then they get a 50% pay cut.
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Or perhaps better still, we identify a number of metrics that reflect the health of the nation which should include debt and budget for sure, but perhaps also includes:
- Overall efficiency - the ability of government to deliver services at a rate competitive with the private sector
- Peace - the government should be rewarded for keeping our nation at peace and in harmonious relations with other nations.
- Social contentment and happiness - we should create a consistent means (i.e. survey) to measure happiness and the government is rewarded when the number stays above a certain threshold.
- Environmental cleanliness (progressively better year-over-year)
- Energy progress - progress in moving away from fossil fuels.
- National health - progressive improvement in key health metrics.
- etc.
Then, just like in the private sector, we tie wage and salary increases to performance.
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I think that is a great idea. Have some incentive to actually do their jobs
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Salaries of reps should start at US median average. Tying it to the debt, or spending, or number of bills would be fantastic. This was meant to be a position of service, not a gravy train. What they lack is what all other jobs have: performance reviews. If they pass new laws, spend our tax dollars or increase the debt then their salaries should be penalized.
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I was thinking along the same lines as yourself when I saw this proposal. Nobody in the private sector goes into their manager’s office and orders an annual pay raise after spending a year destroying the very business that they were hired to improve.
Congressional salaries should serve as a function of national, state, and/or local health metrics/statistics, like you enumerated,. For example, in mathematical representation we might assign today’s simplistic salary model as a variable of X, where X is a function of congressional votes (ie: voting their own pay raises). The new proposed salary structure might be Y, where y=f(z), and z includes all of the metrics that you listed (and perhaps to include 100+ additional properly-weighted variables). This structure would certainly give them the salary-tied-to-performance model, removing the readily-abused current model of self-administered-salaries. Very simple, very logical, thoroughly calculating and completely indiscriminate, and would probably result in many much-needed congressional resignations. 
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It should also allow We The People to vote on if they get a raise or not, after all if we are not satisfied with their performance we can vote against the raise. At this point how much money do they really need, I feel there should be no raises until the debt ceilings comes down to significantly, it would be the same way in the private sector if the company is losing money ( which is shown by the debt ceiling ) then the company does not hand out raises, it should be the same way here.
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Jennie so smart. This would really be a great idea.
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And altogether, we get collectively smarter about it. The sleeping Giant stirs. Gottaluvit! I would hate to be “them” right about now. Ouch!
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This might sound cynical, but the issue with this proposal is that it seems as though a lot of elected officials are clearly getting rich off their positions. They are not living on the salaries- the salary isn’t the incentive, it’s the position that connects them with ways to make large amounts of money.
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Its a good idea. It offers incentives to build the economy.
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I would add that congress cannot receive income from any other sources while serving. Additionally, no immediate family member can receive money tied to decisions that are affected by that congress person.
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I see lot of good ideas about how to hold congress more accountable here. I’ve got one of my own if anyone’s willing to take a look:
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That’s why Members of Congress should be required to place all investments in a blind trust for the duration of their time in Congress, and stronger insider trading rules apply to their immediate family members for the same periods.
Unfortunately, the people serving in Congress are not going to restrict their source of a cash cow, so it’s going to take an Article V Convention to pass the amendment, taking Congress out of the process.
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Since NESARA reduces our govt down by 95%, and all unconstitutional laws formed since 1871 will be deleted, we know drastic changes will take place.
Lets keep our hand on the pulse to see where we land, and adjust accordingly after. …
Love the idea!
I suggested the same thing a couple of weeks ago. Congress can't raise their own pay - #7 by ffemt1
Makes me nuts we even have to talk about this. Of course, they shouldn’t get a pay raise for failing miserably and increasing the debt.
We should also fine each one of them when there’s a government shutdown find them for 80% of their income including dividends from investments and their investment income especially their insider trading one
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