Dorm bunks in the basement?
Section 8 vouchers?
I agree this is a problem. The vast majority of elected officials (including congress) leave higher paying private sector jobs to take lower-paying public office jobs. It’s really hard to get someone to take a big step down in pay unless they feel like they will get something else out of it. And that’s the rub. You end up attracting people who intend to profit from the office, with anything from outright bribery to the so-called revolving door. Even the ones who are independently wealthy and only want to make the world a better place… probably have their own definition of what “a better place” looks like. They want an environment where their investments are likely to grow, so the leave office even richer than when they took office.
Don’t blame the slick politicians. Blame the system that discourages politicians who aren’t slick.
Greatly increase the size of the House of Representatives, such that every seat represents approximately the same number of people. Greatly decrease the size (and funding) for Congressional staffing – with a much larger Congress, representatives themselves could perform lots of the functions (research, communication, etc.) that their staffs do now, which would keep funding levels roughly the same. I did some basic math in an earlier thread below:
Adding on to this, refurbish some DC gov buildings into a Congressional dormitory for when congress is in session. Nothing fancy, just basic small apartment housing.
Just as an idea, anyway.
The members could also do like a bunch of Senators famously did back in the 90s and share quarters splitting the rent. That way you mitigate the high DC costs.
Lemme see… a studio in Pentagon City or Crystal City right across the river close to Reagan National Airport can be found for 1,400-1,600 a month plus utilities. Near the New Carrolton or Landover Metro Stations in the Maryland ‘burbs near the Beltway that could be an even 1,000. Not bad vs. a 174K salary if your cash flow load is light. But if you have kids and a mortgage at home and loan debt (and you are likely to have incurred some in your campaigning) I can see how it could make a hole.
This is all true. I believe the chancellor of DC public schools makes about twice as much as a senator or cabinet member, and only maintains one residence. It’s bizarre.
But I have a hard time seeing that the public would go for a sizable increase in congressional compensation.
And yet, I just don’t think it is appropriate for workers to live in their offices (unless they own the property themselves.)
What skill and responsibilities does holding office require? Do you think all congresscritters meet these high requirements (whatever they are)?
Whether they actually do or not is besides the point- we want them to meet highstandards. And we can’t do that by making it so only millionaires can be sit in Congress.
I am sure that there are plenty of people out there who can find a way to make it work on a paltry $174k. It is, for some reason, only the wealthy that seem to have a problem with that.
You do need to be wealthy and connected to run for office, the way things are set up, but I don’t think that there are going to be many people who go from a $40k salary to a $174k salary complaining.
Very few people who are intelligent and talented and driven enough to make it to congress are going to be making only $40K (or anything close to that) in the private sector.
$174,000/year is a very nice salary by most measures. That puts them squarely in the top 10% of earners (assuming their household has no other income).
The median income in Washington DC is around $75,000 (IIRC the highest in the country). In the rest of the country it is around $60,000. So, even if you split their income in half for having two residences they are still better off than most people in the cities they live in. Lots and lots of people manage to have housing with less money than that. Surely they can make do especially considering they don’t need more than a small studio apartment.
Further, it is not too hard to find another congresscritter to share a place with (I have heard numerous stories of congressmen living together…nothing new there).
I find it hard to feel sorry for them. Especially when it is within their power to start fixing the underlying issues that make rent so expensive in Washington DC (i.e. change the zoning laws which are woefully out of date).
Simple solution, when Trump’s DC hotel has been given up for violating the emoluments clause. we house all congressional members there with their rooms taken out of their standard pay.
I disagree that wage determines intelligence. I mean, for instance, we have these people who aren’t able to make it work on $174k a year. I know quite a number of people who are smart enough to manage to function on far less than that.
There is also the fact that the people making $40-50k a year are actually representative of the people of the united states, and actually understand their needs and desires, as opposed to people who have to take a pay cut in order to take a congressional salary, who have to find out the needs and desires of their constituents from lobbyists who make even more.
It’s even been the subject of a recent documentary. 
Not your point, but why would you even want private sector people in Congress? Surely the most relevant experience is going to come from public sector workers.
OK, duly noted that Fotheringay-Phipps thinks that legislators are hard-working and skilled. I’ll keep that in mind the next time someone (who will also be a Republican) says that politicians are all a bunch of losers who should go back to holding real jobs.
You are forgetting that they generally have to maintain two residences.
You are forgetting to read the part of the post you quoted where Whack-a-Mole explicitly takes that into account.
Oh yeah. Mea Culpa
But there is no legal requirement to do this. They aren’t even required to reside in the district they represent. (When Congress was first created, travel conditions were such that many only rarely made it back home to their districts.)
For nearly 30 years, my Congressman did not own a residence in our district – he owned a house in DC, and stayed with friends when he was back in the district. And it didn’t affect his vote-getting – he continued to be re-elected by 70% margins until he retired.