Musk recommends pay raise for members of Congress

After all the talk of cutting government expenses, Elon Musk just recommended something that I never thought I would hear him say.

Musk recommended pay raises for members of Congress as an incentive to avoid corruption.

No Pay Raise

I almost feel bad for members of Congress that it has been about 15 years since their last pay raise, but let’s be honest here.

Congress was never supposed to be a career… it was always supposed to be our representation of citizens of their respective states.

The wishes of our Founding Fathers were put aside many years ago, and now Congress is a high-paying six-figure salary and a career.

These people call themselves leaders, but we don’t elect leaders in this country, we elect representation. Even the president is not technically a leader. He has to make some leadership decisions, but ultimately, the president is supposed to be the ultimate representative to carry out the wishes of We the People.

Crash and Burned

During the last big bill under Joe Biden, members of Congress tried to work in a 40% pay raise, but it ultimately failed. Again, if they were honest people, I would have no problem giving them a raise, but they have enormous expense accounts, and write off just about everything you can imagine to their campaigns, so I don’t want to hear how they are hurting for money.

When members of Congress tried to fold a raise into Biden’s last spending bill, Federal Employees Health Benefits Program led Maine Democrat Jared Golden called them out, stating, “Congress should be working to raise Americans’ wages and lower their health care costs, not sneaking new member perks into must-pass legislation behind closed doors.

“If members can’t get by on our already generous salaries and benefits, they should find another line of work. As long as these provisions are in the CR, I will vote against it.”

The current salary of members of Congress is $174,000, more if they are in a party leadership position.

Musk Recommends Raise

Musk, who has been tasked with saving the government money, recommended that we give members of Congress a raise.

He posted, “It might make sense to increase compensation for Congress and senior government employees to reduce the forcing function for corruption, as the latter might be as much as 1000 [sic] times more expensive to the public.”

But the problem with his premise is that he would expect the corruption to go away, and that will never happen. You want to give members of Congress raises, then let’s start to talk about term limits, not trading stocks related to their committees and legislation they vote on, writing books, and having podcasts during their time in office.

These people are like sports stars whining they don’t make enough, when they all have side deals raking in millions. Just look at the net worth of members of Congress, as the majority of them are millionaires, often after only a few years in Congress. So, no, Elon, giving the a raise will not stop the corruption and it is not a good idea.