Someone in the “Y U NO stand up for self?” thread mentioned that Congress never slashes their own (salaries, perks, staff etc.) when railing about cutting federal spending, and at first I thought “Duh,” but now I think “That would be brilliant.”
In the big picture, that’s chump change. Their real money comes from legal bribery, the megabux heaped on legislators from their corporate overlords. So say the Pubbies take the lead in openly calling for the slashing of their own salaries etc.–I figure that alone would push about half of the electorate that matters (the approximately 20% of the voters whose vote is up for grabs) who can’t really process a complex thought into thinking “Hey, those are noble, principled, patriotic men who are sacrificing their own pockets for the puboic good” and sweep the Pubbies into office where they can prey like nobody’s business on the federal dollar–I mean really go nuts, slash taxes on the rich to 0%, have a free federal corporate jet program for businesses producing over $1 M per year, outlaw abortion, make Xianity mandatory, privatize Social Security–think of alll the shit they could accomplish with an unstoppable supermajority in both houses and in the WHite House, all for the mere cost of their petty salaries, which Corporate America could easily replace (and more) through back-channels, and which would be earned back by all the legislation those contributions would be buying.
Actually, Congress is cutting its own budget. Link. I’m sure this is an insufficient cut for you, but cuts are happening. Note that Congress has placed handcuffs on itself before, such as the gift bans, the “cooling-off” periods before a congressman can become a lobbyist, and so on. I’m fairly sure those steps are insufficient, too, but don’t let me get in the way of a good bashing of politicians.
Your OP rests on several premises that are obviously wrong. First of all, you suppose that corporate overlords give “megabux” payments to Congresscritters. They don’t; that would be illegal. The corporate overlords can pay for advertising in Congressional campaigns. Of course there have been a few instances of corporations giving money and perks directly to Congress members in exchange for votes, but eventually that sort of thing gets exposed and the member of Congress is forced to step down. Your claim that half the electorate that matters “can’t process of complex thought” is arrogant, nasty, and groundless. Declaring that anyone who doesn’t think like you do is a moron is not, generally speaking, a good argument tactic. Thirdly, you claim that the Republicans want to “slash taxes on the rich to 0%, have a free federal corporate jet program for businesses producing over $1 M per year, outlaw abortion, make Xianity mandatory, privatize Social Security” is nonsense. The idea that any of them want to slash taxes on the rich to zero percent, offer free corporate jets, or make Christianity mandatory is purely a figment of your (apparently quite active) imagination. Some Republicans want to outlaw abortion with exceptions, but not all. As for privatizing Social Security, they change their minds on that one quite frequently.
So, in short, you should have thought about this OP a bit more before you posted it.