yahoo: are member of congress paid enough?

[Hubbs]

Look, I enjoy a good three-day workweek joke as much as anyone. Hell, this is still one of my favorite videos ever:

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But in all seriousness, members of Congress really do have to do a lot of things that can't be done when Congress is in session. By far the biggest thing is what Uncle Jay up there alluded to—they have to meet with their constituents. This is particularly hard to do if Congress is in session because constituents are, by definition, not in Washington, DC. (Taxation without representation for 221 years and counting!) There are tons of local officials, business leaders, political groups, etc. who want to meet with their rep/senator about everything from highway jobs to education funding to pollution in Lake Important, and they all have to be juggled. Then there are town hall meetings, an endless stream of requests from schools/power plants/whatever to come to ribbon-cutting ceremonies and the like, meeting with your state and local party members, and so on. Plus, if you're in the House, every other year involves a campaign.

So yeah. They're pretty busy when Congress isn't technically in session.

[Fergasun]

I'll switch jobs with these guys.

Republican Congressmen are nothing more than folks who do the bidding of the Republican party.

Democratic Congressmen are nothing more than folks who do the bidding of the Democratic party.

I think I watch them pretty close, and they they call "Congressional oversight" is a sick effin' joke.

Republicans didn't do anything when Bush was doing shady things, in fact they were working to block oversight of Bush; Democrats the same to Obama.

Part of Congress' job should be "Congressional oversight" PERIOD... but what is "oversight" when its nothing more than just doing what your side wants you to do.

Our government is a joke... that's unfortunate. If there were more independent folks, I wouldn't think so; but 90% of them vote the party line and the other 10% of the time the votes are traded so it's pretty hard to block legislation.

We need a true opposition party... an opposition to both the R's and D's...

[SkinInsite]

People love to talk about changing the political systems but when election time comes 90% vote party lines.

Fact is generally people are content enough with the current system. It's easier to ***** and moan while watching CNN than actually advocate change.

[TimmySmith]

Not only do they work for roughly half a year for their pay. But during that half a year, they do not have to spend a dime of their own money for living expenses. Good gig.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

I love all the comments about switching jobs with these people. Of course you or I would do that in most cases. But that's the point...no one would elect us which is why they are "in demand" and making more money.

[pjfootballer]

And my point is that they are not the average American, nor should they be paid like one.

Look, the average American drives a bus, or sells insurance, or stocks shelves at Walmart. Nothing wrong with any of that, but I think my Congressman has more responsibility and hopefully has better qualifications, and should be paid accordingly.

And my point is they are paid enough with enough perks, so they need to stop their complaining! Maybe they should try stocking shelves at Walmart or doing what I do and maybe they wouldn't have too much to complain about. The other point is, they are paid well enough to live a good lifestyle. With an economy trying to recover, the "last thing" they should be asking for is a raise.

[Predicto]

Do people really think that Congressmen only work when Congress is technically "in session"? That all they do is show up, raise their hands, and go play Parcheesi?

Do you have any idea what level of work goes into the drafting of a statute? Of reviewing all of the hundreds of other proposed statutes? Of negotiating the specific language and trying to find other votes? Do you think that overseeing budgets, and military appropriations, and participating in all those committees happens by itself? If you want to vote responsibly on a health care bill, you need to educate yourself on health care issues. If you want to vote responsibily on an energy bill, you need to educate yourself on energy issues. Hell, reading confidential intelligence documents alone takes a ton of time. Meeting with constitutuents, speaking to civic groups, helping specific people with their problems with immigration or veterans affairs or whatever, it all takes a ton of time.

The ones who say they want to go home to their families are not saying they want to hang out at the country club. They want to go home to Georgia or Montana or whatever, and work in their office there all day, and at least get to see the wife and kids when they finally come home at 10 o'clock.

One of my best friends worked in a congressional office and ran for Congress twice (lost by 2 points both times). Perhaps my mistake is to actually have discussed this subject with him in great detail, rather than just relying on knee jerk assumptions that politicians suck and therefore must be lazy too.

[pjfootballer]

People love to talk about changing the political systems but when election time comes 90% vote party lines.

Fact is generally people are content enough with the current system. It's easier to ***** and moan while watching CNN than actually advocate change.

I'm proud to say that for the first time ever in the last Presidential Election, I voted 3rd party. Neither of those 2 bafoons received my vote in 2008.

[Predicto]

Not only do they work for roughly half a year for their pay. But during that half a year, they do not have to spend a dime of their own money for living expenses. Good gig.

How do you figure? Are they staying in the Congressional Dormitory? Eating at the Dining Hall?

[SkinInsite]

To get elected you have to be many things and lazy isn't one of them.

[Fergasun]

I love all the comments about switching jobs with these people. Of course you or I would do that in most cases. But that's the point...no one would elect us which is why they are "in demand" and making more money.

Freakin' Blake Farenholt was in demand?! Have you ever seen that guy do anything useful?! That guy is a rich oilman, but I have no idea how that makes him "in demand" as a Congressman.

I would laugh my butt off if some genius won over the American people and won 5 seats by themselves; or even 50 seats... now that is political power.

[Fergasun]

This is what Congress was talking about 4 years ago (August 2007):

Surprisingly, in August, the figures show the first significant drop in poverty in a decade. This is great news. Shout it from the housetop, which we are. This is the ``big House.'' We are shouting it. The official rate declined from 12.6 percent in 2005 down to 12.3 percent. That is great. We want to reduce the level of poverty in the United States. The Federal tax cuts of 2003 gave us an economy that added $1.3 trillion in real output. We have grown more than 3 percent annually, according to Investors Business Daily. Business spending, way up, adding 8 million new jobs to this economy. Real labor compensation per hour has rebounded, because now wages have advanced 3.9 percent from a year ago.

...

These are real benefits, when government doesn't have that money, when normal real people have this money. That is what we want, to have all households have that money, and the poorest families are the ones that need to benefit even the most. Mr. Speaker, even with the slight decline in job creation in August, the Nation's unemployment rate remained in record low territory of 4.6 percent. Great news. Great news for today.

How those tax cuts working out for you today Mrs. Bachmann?

... and I won't even quote from the whole "Let's get out of Iraq ASAP" party...

[illone]

I'd suggest that being in their position exposes them to certain financial percs that are not mentioned in their salary.

175K is not enough, though. I wouldn't accept that responsibility for anything less than 500K per year + full pension.

[LadySkinsFan]

Considering all that lobbying money they get, I think they get paid plenty to vote the way their masters dictate. For sure they are not acting in the People's best interests.

[PCS]

Why? A trained baboon could do that job.

Do it better in fact.

Something the mods and members of congress have in common then. And with that in mind,we look forward to receiving your resume. (You will need to shower though).

As for their pay. Hmmmm. Vet minimum plus incentives.