Cutting Fed Spending: Time To "Right Size" Congress?

Ask yourself, do we REALLY need two Senators from each state? We could be saving a whole lot of $ if there were only 50 of them.

And what about the House? Do we REALLY need 435 of those people on the government dole, along with their staffs? How about cutting that number down to 200 or so?

Every other business in the country is cutting staff and overhead. Why not Congress?

:evilgrin:

as for the House, the number is fixed by custom rather than law -- but I'd like to see it bigger, not smaller, so that progressive candidates whould have a better shot in some of the new, smaller districts. Doing it your way would make the districts larger, titling the playing field further in favor of candidates with big bucks for media buys.

Congress members are always pissing and moaning about how expensive it is to live in DC? Build a giant apartment complex and they get to stay there FOR FREE while they're in Congress. A shuttle bus runs between Congress and the apartments 24/7. Now they don't need cars, either.

And once they have a place to live, cut their salaries by half. Take away the LIFELONG health benefits, give them a much larger co-pay. No more free onsite medical care at the Capitol, either.

Let them live like us.

I posted some of my ideas below. Most of them are already millionaires, so they will "never" live like the rest of us, but we sure as hell don't have to "subsidize" the lavish life style while they are in office. I agree with complex, shuttle, no cars and if they make over a certain amount of money, including their pay for being a congress person, then they don't need subsidized health care!

We could start with doing away with their health care if they make over a certain amount of income. Why should the taxpayers have to pay for "millionaires" health insurance?

We could also stop giving them retirement income after they leave office no matter how long they served, that's just plain crazy. When they hit retirement age, and if they don't already have a huge income from other sources, then give them a "percent" of what they made, like most people get, and if they make over a certain amount, nothing!

Most of congress are millionaires, we should have to pay for a lot of their "perks". Give the them same basics any other federal employee would get and if they want more, let them pay for out of their own pockets!

We need to end the "millionaires" who are bought and paid for by big corporations, and who end up working for those corporations when they leave office, from milking the taxpayers while they are in office and after they leave. If they can't vote to extend benefits for the unemployed, they shouldn't be holding out their own hand for "congressional" welfare paid for by taxpayers!

That what Congress should not meet in DC... too comfortable. They should meet in Arizona, in the desert, in the summer. And they should not have air conditioning.

It has always seemed to me that the only reason big staffs are needed by Congress members, is that a single member has no time to read the huge bills, that are written by big staffs. I don't know that we should change the number of elected members, but we certainly should reduce their staff numbers.