Congressional wages should be 2.13 per hour. They're already heavily tipped.

What about the rest of us, who manage to scrape by on 60K or less after y’all have already taxed away a third of it? Where’s our relief you whiny shit? 💩

If you want your politicians to be loyal to a country, you pay them. If you want them to be loyal to corporate interests, you let the corporations pay them. It is obvious the path the US has chosen. Contrast that with Singapore for an example of paying your elite government officials an actual salary and how corruption drops to zero.

But $7.50 is apparently enough.

'Most of us don't have wealth'

God damn it, he's so close.

It might still be true that someone could be refused a top secret clearance if they had too many debts. The theory is that if someone is under financial strain, they're easier to bribe.

As much as it might not feel good, it might be logical to pay congresspeople more, if it can be shown it makes them less susceptible to bribery.

And, while $174,000 seems like a lot, even someone like AOC thinks it's not enough. One problem is that they're legally required to have two residences, one in their district, and another one in DC. So, she needs to pay full-time rent on a place in DC ($2500 / month) and her district in NY (say $2000 / month). That's $54k per year just on rent. I don't know what the other costs are, but the people who get to congress who aren't rich already often seem to struggle.

To me it makes sense that congressional reps be paid enough that they're not under any financial strain. It means it's harder to bribe them, and that they can focus on doing their job instead of on their personal finances.

I've heard this argument before, and I call bullshit.

Having more money does not protect you from greed, dishonesty, or susceptabiliy to bribes. Proof surrounds us, but you need look no further than Trump. Not as rich as he'd like you to believe, but born with a silver spoon in his mouth and certainly wealthy, and one of the crookedest, corrupt motherfuckers in the public eye.

AOC embarrases herself repeating that patently false position.

I have no type of economics experience, but what if representatives of a demographic of people should be paid the median wage of those people, with high punishment for corruption and bribes?

If they would like to earn more, they should lift their states's lowest wages. This goes down to all levels, a mayor of a city only earns the median wage of the city. It is a civil servant job after all, it shouldn't be glamorous.

Congress should be paid based on a minimum wage factor and that rate should be locked for 20 years.

Aww, did he forget to make sure he had five years of savings? Did he not make sure his retirement plan would be enough to cover his desired lifestyle once he no longer had a normal income? Perhaps he could pick up a part time job at the local Walmart to afford his insurance needs.

Let me turn this around for y'all: how much would you pay politicians if you wanted to maximize corruption?

While it sounds absurd, between travel expenses and needing to maintain residency in the state and the very expensive DC, $174,000 really doesn't stretch very far. Instead of just paying them more, a housing and transit stipend might be prudent.

Can't they just do insider trading like the other politicians in the US? Gotta pull yourself up by those bootstraps.

Guess I'll just have to take over the position, then, since I know how to live within my means.

I am not fundamentally against giving Congress a pay raise, their last pay raise was in 2009 and it's probably time to give them a cost of living adjustment. I'm not opposed to giving Congress a pay raise to encourage a wider range or people to run in the hope that we can have better Congressmen. There are Congressmen who come from already expensive areas where $174,000 isn't a lot (such as AOC) and so they may need more pay. Washington is an expensive place and so are the surrounding areas, there is an argument that they need high pay to run their house in their home state and pay for expenses in DC.

The problem I have is with the argument that paying Congress more would either help eliminate corruption or that Congressmen can make more money working somewhere else.

The first paragraph of arguments is a real discussion and should be solved. Patrick McHenry doesn't fit that criteria. $174k is a very good wage in his district and a quick search of some public records shows he has owned multiple properties and even owns a separate lake property as well.

So if living very comfortably, almost lavishly in comparison to the people in his district, isn't enough then what is? What is the lifestyle expectation for a Congressman? I personally don't think a Congressional job should be about making people wealthy. If this isn't enough then nothing would be.