[Badeye]

I’d say genuine. The fact is DC areas that are habitable for those not on welfare are expensive as hell.

House Reps make around 160k or so per year as I recall.

18K for a studio apartment, then the House Reps mortgage for his ‘home’....THEN all the family and life related costs, many doubled because the House rep is in DC, the family is back in the home district...its probably genuine for a freshman congresscritter.

They haven’t had the time to learn how to ‘play the game’ in short.

Thats the problem in my view. The job has perks, the job is important, but we don’t pay enough, and we demand saints in return. Then when the congresscritter falls short, we go nuts on them.

Catch 22 of our own making. JMHO. I know I’d love to run for the House. I also know my wife would kill me because of the pay cut, and all the added expenses of maintaining two homes.

[Free_SJersey]

"The job has perks, the job is important, but we don’t pay enough, and we demand saints in return

$174,000 a year is a substantial pay for someone who is doing something that should be done for the good of the people and out of a sense of patriotic duty. These vermin should be getting paid whatever the median income of those he represents and should live in baracks.

I am sick and tired of the poor mouthing of those who chose to serve. Those perks you mention don't even begin to explain how some mediocre lawyer goes to Congress and ten years later, they're millionaires. After their second term in the House and their first in the Senate, they've all lost touch with the people.

Politics should never be a career. That's the worst thing that's happened to this nation.

[Thumper1960]

Then there's the issue of their being "public servants".

If you want the job, you deal with the pay. In fact, it's not supposed to be about the money.

When did we all lose sight of that?