this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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politics

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Retiring House Republican says $174,000 isn't enough money for members of Congress: 'Most of us don't have wealth' (www.businessinsider.com)
submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world
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Rank-and-file members of both the House and Senate are paid $174,000 a year.

That probably seems like a decent amount of money, and it is: The median household income in 2022 was $74,580, according to the US Census.

But consider that members of Congress generally have to maintain two residences — one in Washington, DC, and one in their home state — and that they haven't gotten a raise since 2009.

Inflation, meanwhile, has eaten away at the value of that salary over time: If lawmakers' salaries had kept pace with inflation, they would be paid over $250,000 today.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican who served as the interim speaker of the House following Kevin McCarthy's ouster, told The Dispatch that congressional pay needed to be raised in order to attract "credible people to run for office."

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[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

While I do agree that’s really not enough anymore, given engineering (for example) salary in high cost of living areas and I’d support an increase …

  • it’s up to Congress to give their successors a raise
  • given the Clarence Thomas issue, we can see that no amount of pay will be enough for some of them, given lack of ethics standards
  • we keep seeing articles about politicians being wealthy and minimal conflict of interest standards, so let’s see the evidence that salary is a meaningful part of their pay

Maybe I’m just frustrated having to go through annual ethics training for my company. Why am I, as an individual contributor, held to so much higher an ethics standard than people who make decisions for the future of our entire country? Why do I need to watch out go for insider trading when I don’t have insider information, compared to people with the access of Congress? Why is my standard for conflict of interest so much higher than someone who can actually take advantage? Heck, why am I held to so much higher a standard on discrimination and harassment, than people with so much power over their victims?

[–] FReddit@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

I'm disgusted with ethics training. I have to take this constantly, and I have no opportunity to take anything from anyone. Somebody offered me free soup from the Soup Nazi's company once and I couldn't take it.

Meanwhile, these pigs in Congress are lining their pockets with everything.