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Simple Reforms for Congress
This is a reprint of an article I wrote prior to setting up Semper Libertas.
According to the
Constitution, Congress sets the salary for the President of the United
States; however, Congress can't change the rate of pay for the
President currently in office; any change in salary as mandated by
Congress takes effect only after the next election.
For Congress, however, pay raises are as regular as Old Faithful. Regardless of "performance", or any other standard, Congress votes themselves pay raises on a regular basis. At times, they've even structured them such that they take place automatically, unless Congress specifically voted to the raises (and take a wild guess how often that happened).
In addition to a salary that puts them in the top 5% of all wage earners, Congressmen are paid a pension — not a 401(k) type of plan, where the employer matches a certain portion of a person's own contributions, but basically after a member of Congress retires (voluntarily or not), we're still paying them. Until earlier this year, even if a member of Congress was convicted of a felony crime, he still received his pension (yes, that means we're still paying Duke Cunningham his full pension).
Further, because there are no limits on the number of terms a representative or senator can serve, we literally have members of Congress who were serving and present in the chamber for State of the Union addresses by President Eisenhower! Along the way, people like West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd and Michigan Representative John Dingell have accumulated power, riches, influence, and have written laws under which they've never had to live, work, start a business, or serve.
How about a simple idea that might just kill two birds with one stone — get future Congressional pay raises under control and remove at least a part of the incentive for a person to remain in Congress for many years: any pay raise passed by Congress does not credit toward any member serving in Congress at the time of its passage. In short, the salary earned by a Congressman or Senator at the time of his election would never change, no matter how long he served. No matter how much inflation, or taxes, or property went up, the salary would be set at its initial value.
Think Congressional salaries are too small? Fine, you can increase them, but only new members of Congress would reap the benefits. Want to make more money? Fine, you can join the private sector and start a business — under the anti-business, stifling regulations and taxes you setup while you were in office. Then perhaps if you decide to return to "public service", you'll have a better perspective of exactly what type of laws are truly necessary.
Term limits have been roundly criticized by many who have stated that it limits their own choices, their own right to elect whomever they wish to their office. In this case, their choice would still be there, just with less incentive for a person to remain in Congress as a career and therefore likely fewer incumbents each election cycle. Fewer incumbents would mean more wide-open races, more choices, fewer entrenched power brokers using government money like candy to buy votes.
Another reform would be to abolish Congressional pensions altogether, in favor of a 401(k)-like program (I think the government version is called a 403(b) ). Instead of our tax money continuing to pay out a "defined benefit" to those who served in Congress, they would be allowed to contribute pre-tax dollars to a retirement savings account, subject to the exact same provisions as all other federal workers. I'd even be willing to extend the same "employer match" to them as is provided to federal workers. They would also be subject to Social Security, thus making the "retirement plan" dependent upon a combination of Social Security and whatever they choose to contribute to their own retirement account — just like the rest of us.
I believe these simple reforms would do more to "drain the swamp" of Congress than any reform ever passed dealing with the Congressmen themselves.
For Congress, however, pay raises are as regular as Old Faithful. Regardless of "performance", or any other standard, Congress votes themselves pay raises on a regular basis. At times, they've even structured them such that they take place automatically, unless Congress specifically voted to the raises (and take a wild guess how often that happened).
In addition to a salary that puts them in the top 5% of all wage earners, Congressmen are paid a pension — not a 401(k) type of plan, where the employer matches a certain portion of a person's own contributions, but basically after a member of Congress retires (voluntarily or not), we're still paying them. Until earlier this year, even if a member of Congress was convicted of a felony crime, he still received his pension (yes, that means we're still paying Duke Cunningham his full pension).
Further, because there are no limits on the number of terms a representative or senator can serve, we literally have members of Congress who were serving and present in the chamber for State of the Union addresses by President Eisenhower! Along the way, people like West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd and Michigan Representative John Dingell have accumulated power, riches, influence, and have written laws under which they've never had to live, work, start a business, or serve.
How about a simple idea that might just kill two birds with one stone — get future Congressional pay raises under control and remove at least a part of the incentive for a person to remain in Congress for many years: any pay raise passed by Congress does not credit toward any member serving in Congress at the time of its passage. In short, the salary earned by a Congressman or Senator at the time of his election would never change, no matter how long he served. No matter how much inflation, or taxes, or property went up, the salary would be set at its initial value.
Think Congressional salaries are too small? Fine, you can increase them, but only new members of Congress would reap the benefits. Want to make more money? Fine, you can join the private sector and start a business — under the anti-business, stifling regulations and taxes you setup while you were in office. Then perhaps if you decide to return to "public service", you'll have a better perspective of exactly what type of laws are truly necessary.
Term limits have been roundly criticized by many who have stated that it limits their own choices, their own right to elect whomever they wish to their office. In this case, their choice would still be there, just with less incentive for a person to remain in Congress as a career and therefore likely fewer incumbents each election cycle. Fewer incumbents would mean more wide-open races, more choices, fewer entrenched power brokers using government money like candy to buy votes.
Another reform would be to abolish Congressional pensions altogether, in favor of a 401(k)-like program (I think the government version is called a 403(b) ). Instead of our tax money continuing to pay out a "defined benefit" to those who served in Congress, they would be allowed to contribute pre-tax dollars to a retirement savings account, subject to the exact same provisions as all other federal workers. I'd even be willing to extend the same "employer match" to them as is provided to federal workers. They would also be subject to Social Security, thus making the "retirement plan" dependent upon a combination of Social Security and whatever they choose to contribute to their own retirement account — just like the rest of us.
I believe these simple reforms would do more to "drain the swamp" of Congress than any reform ever passed dealing with the Congressmen themselves.
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