General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "Struggling to make ends meet" on $174K a year?? Really Nancy??? [View all]jmowreader
(50,553 posts)is for what we expect Congress members to do - not what they ARE doing, what we WANT and NEED them to do - $174,000 is a damn disgrace. In the private sector, someone with the level of responsibility a Congress member has would be making $1.5 million in salary and a few million in stock options, bonuses and other compensation.
The caliber of people we want in Congress - the ones who are worth a million-five plus ISOs and bonuses - don't want to take that kind of a cut in pay. Yes, being a Congress member is an honor but most people don't see honor in a 90-percent pay cut. The result is we get, for the most part, two kinds of people in Congress: guys who are trying out for a job on K Street, and guys who have an agenda, usually either a very-far-right-wing one or a selfish one like cutting a tax that affects their own businesses. Notice that there are very, very few people like Alan Grayson in Congress. There are PLENTY of guys like Raul Labrador, an immigration lawyer who went to DC to alter immigration law to his benefit.
We can't afford to pay a congressman $1.5 million nor should we consider it...but we need to quit bitching about someone who's basically a mid-level executive making $174,000 per year.