As they departed the Capitol for the five-week recess, House Republicans nonetheless believed they had a credible case to make for why the opposition should stay in the minority for the final two years of Trump’s presidency.
As they departed the Capitol for the five-week recess, House Republicans nonetheless believed they had a credible case to make for why the opposition should stay in the minority for the final two years of Trump’s presidency.
It just infuriates me that our federal politicians only work like four months out of the year.
(After doing nothing about the cost of living crisis.)
You have a fundamental misunderstanding of how Congress works.
Time spent in DC is supposed to be the smallest part of their job. Recess isn’t vacation for them, if they’re doing it right. Recess is when they actually do the job of representation. They’re supposed to be spending time in their districts holding town halls, having open office hours, and working with local groups on issues that need to be brought up when they are in session.
They should be spending more time with their constituents than in DC. Spending time with constituents is the most fundamental job function of a representative.
A lot don’t do that though, and that’s on their idiot constituents for continually voting them in and not holding them accountable.
How much time have you personally spent with any of your representatives?
I’ve met my federal representative in person a dozen or so times at her office locally, and been to 6 town halls, both in person and virtual teleconference town halls. My state House rep I have met a ton. He’s extremely active in the community.
A whole lot of words there to say: “You’re wrong… but maybe also not wrong.”
You’re wrong, but for a different reason.
Being on recess isn’t the issue. They should be on recess and working in their districts more often than they are actually in session in DC. They ideally shouldn’t be in session that much at all. Their primary role is being at home in their district working with their constituents and that’s where the vast majority of work is intended to take place.
Not working while on recess is a completely different issue, and that’s up the constituents to enforce via voting. Plenty of representatives and senators are actively working in their districts when on recess, like they should be. Those that aren’t should be voted out by their constituents. If the constituents keep voting them in, they’re openly saying that’s the representation they want. And that’s on them.
Seems like it should be a mandatory part of the job. Senators should have scheduled town halls in every district in their state, Representatives should have scheduled town halls in every municipality in their district, every year.
It should be, yes. The good ones are already doing this, but there absolutely should be some requirement to make the lazy ones actually do their job.
And, ideally, we’d have an active and informed constituency that keeps their representatives honest. They should be terrified of being voted out because their constituents keep their feet to the fire.
Ideally, yeah. But the mandatory town hall thing seems a bit easier to actually achieve. Have you met the constituency?
Lol yeah that’s the issue. You cannot expect people to put rules on themselves like that if nobody is going to enforce it. It truly does fall to the constituency to be the enforcement by voting them out when they abdicate their responsibilities.
I appreciate the info. Thank you.
And get paid like they work 24/7
And get free healthcare they so vehemently deny all US citizens.
I don’t mind their actual base pay, since by becoming a public official you are automatically hated by at least 40% of the population even if you do a good job.
Those getting that healthcare they deny us, even after they leave their job… that is the real slap in the face.
I got a lot of other complaints as well, but the healthcare for life is something that should be a human right.
I mean, don’t they also get retirement pay forever–something else that they’ve sought over the years to deny us?
I looked it up for the specifics.
Short version is they get about 1% of base pay per year served, with a slight bonus once you start to stick around for a long time, like 10 years you get 1.1%, 20 years you get 1.2%.
I’m more concerned with them doing shady stuff back in the private sector where they still have all their political connections with less public scrutiny. I suspect that is the much more lucrative prize.
Indeed. If we count the bribes, I mean “lobbyist gifts”, they get paid about as well as teachers or cancer researchers or whatever SHOULD be paid.
Yet, they do more harm than bad teachers and cancer itself. Make it make sense.
You were probably being rhetorical, but it does make sense, in a way that should provoke revolution. Rich people are paying to make everything worse. The self-serving and shortsighted are happily helping them do it.
They also rarely ever work 5 days per week. They get paid a full salary though regardless. Not to mention all the lobbying bribe money.
Our system is a sham.
Also, don’t they get like free healthcare, paid sick leave and all that other stuff?
No. They are required by law to buy their own health insurance from the ACA marketplace.
They do, even when the government is shut down and they’re doing nothing.
And they spend most of the afternoon fundraising and with lobbyists. The clever ones start their reelection campaign immediately after getting elected.
And it doesn’t have to be this way! This behavior of spending most of their time in office campaigning or acquiring funding for reelection instead of, you know, governing only became the norm in the nineties.
(Add yet another “fuck Newt Gingrich” to the tally board.)
they don’t even do work when they are working too