507
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
507 points (96.9% liked)
politics
19144 readers
4672 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
This isn't as wild as it sounds.
A family friend was elected to Congress, and he had been an HVAC contractor prior to his election, and the move to DC was financially difficult because DC housing is very expensive and they still had a mortgage back in their district.
How did he work things out? He started accepting donations, and that's as slippery slope. He's become as corrupt as they come and I'm ashamed to have been his friend.
Now if only states maintained congressional residences in DC so their congressmen don't find themselves saddled with +million-dollar mortgages on homes they might only be living in for 2 or 4 years.
Really, if you're sitting on a million-dollar mortgage and you might be primaried in your next election if you don't play ball with the lobbyists (or more to the point, you'd have to keep paying it after your tenure in congress ends) isn't that just bending freshman congressmen over a barrel to be corrupted?
Conversely, imagine the scenario if you lose your re-election bid and in order to pursue the post-congress lobbying career you'd have to buy yourself a new home in DC.
Normalize getting the fuck out of DC when you're out of office, guys/make it expensive to stay on
I've long said there should be a congressional dorm. Two, maybe four to a room, they share a bathroom with the room next door, one of those fridges with a microwave bolted to the top, cameras in the hallways.
Why is congress being treated like college freshmen?
Seems a little rude.
Honestly I've read that a lack of interaction between members of Congress has lead to a part of our extreme politics lately. They used to have dinners and such together and with enough interaction even representitives from opposite parties would become friends/friendly.
Maybe having a Democrat and Republican share a room isn't such a bad idea lol although some people eventually hate their roommates so... Mixed bag I guess lol
Your asking a group of the most powerful people in the nation to live in dorms.
That would lead to even more clique behavior. Mean Girls with diplomatic immunity. Fun times.
Im sure investment tips would never be shared or colluded around.
And they would all be in one central location for the lobbists to come hand out bribes. Or terrorists to strike.
As for a uniform as some suggest, i prefer the George Carlin idea of NASCAR style patches worn for each corporate donor.
But treating congress people like children or soilders in basic training is just demonstrating a lack of proper thought on the matter.
Make them all live like in 12 Monkeys.
Just go the full monty and make it a cult.
They can sell soap for re-election funds.
We could pack all of them into a Quonset hut, each one gets a twin-size bunk and a foot locker like your average soldier. Maybe we should issue them mandatory identical clothing too.
Taxpayers shouldn't have to pay out the ass just so they can live a nicer life than the rest of us while they continually make far more than us and don't try to govern properly (like raising our minimum wage).
If normal people need a bunch of roommates to afford DC, the less well-off Congressmen can deal with something similar until they have made enough good financial decisions to get something nicer, just like the rest of us do.
Also if someone sucks at making financial decisions, I honestly don't think they should be in a position to decide fiscal legislation for the entire country, it's clearly not a skill in their wheelhouse and that's not the place to acquire that skill.
The problem is only the wealthy could afford to hold office.
Does rule by the 1% sound like a good idea?
Frankly the people advocating to force minimum wage living conditions on congress people are not respecting the problem or must be some of those "accelerationists" that just want everything to fall apart so it can get worse before it gets better.
I get that (most) people are upset with Do Nothing Congress 2: Insurrectionist Boogaloo, but to replace them with minimum wage rookies and blue blood elites raised to run the world is not a good idea. Its extremely stupid.
Not that I'm (seriously) advocating for them to go into a dorm, but these people decide their salaries.
If they were doing their job properly they would have raised it, or better yet they would have established a higher-end apartment-dorm type solution that is paid for by the state and so their paychecks are not used to cover their living expenses in DC (not college freshman standards, more like two bedroom apartments unless they want to pony up part of their paycheck, one for a bed and one for an office).
They're not actually doing either of these things though, so I hardly feel bad.
This is an extremely high quality take! We have governors mansions in some (all?) States, the president gets the white house, but what do elected officials at the national level get?
Exactly. Paying them $10 milion a year would be a drop in the bucket to the us gov (about 0.1% of the budget).
And if it made them immune to lobbying and work for the people properly, it would be money well spent.
Unfortunately, I am not convinced raising their salary would help that much.