this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
516 points (96.6% liked)

politics

19089 readers
4335 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

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."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] brennansv@sfba.social 82 points 10 months ago (4 children)

@MicroWave @steinbring We should not increase their pay. Instead we should simply provide housing connected with public transit so members of Congress can cut some of their costs and actually experience what it is like to live this way. They already get great healthcare and access to a fitness center and cafeteria.

[–] just_change_it@lemmy.world 21 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I understand what you're saying but I think you can't get elected to a national house or senate seat without being wealthy or very connected to wealth.

The income is mostly just a joke. There should be an equitable way for people without an income or wealthy connections to be elected on merit and opinions rather than by virtue of giant funding.

Personally I vote for election advertising bans by 3rd parties and to make all election advertising done through a collective pool of funds shared by all candidates. These fucking PACs are a big problem today and they are everywhere

[–] TheRealKuni@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

But the Supreme Court said spending my money to support political causes is freedom of expression protected by the first amendment! How dare you try to limit my expression!

/s just in case.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Schumer lives in a share house when in DC. There's no reason Congress couldn't provide that or dorms or something similar.

[–] nbafantest@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You have any links about this? I'd like to read more

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

https://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/04/politics/real-alpha-house/index.html

This is from some years back, not sure if that's still his living situation as majority leader.

[–] nelly_man@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

It looks like they moved out when George Miller retired from Congress in 2014, but they were there for about 30 years.

[–] nbafantest@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Very interesting read, i did not know this. Thanks for sharing.

[–] nbafantest@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Yep, excellent idea.

Housing for them is the real issue here.