Aging Members of Congress Receive Superb Medical Care and Refuse to Disclose Details of Their Secret Hospital

[eppur_se_muova]

3. From the beginning, TX has paid its state Legislators very little. Result: only rich people could serve without bribery.

This was deliberate. Only wealthy gringos -- no brown people -- could afford to run for office; for most Texans, serving in office would have left them broke, which left them very open to bribes. "The three B's" -- beef, broads, and bourbon were the currency of rich businessmen (originally ranchers, later oilmen) who wanted to buy influence in the Lege.

Robert A. Caro wrote about this in his biography of LBJ -- LBJ's father attempted to serve in the Lege w/out being independently wealthy, and his family lived in poverty as a result. LBJ learned a lesson from this he -- proved very corrupt when he gained office himself, putting his wholly owned businesses in his wife's name to avoid disclosing his real income and real net worth.

Starving your Representatives won't make them more honest, it will force honest people to refrain from running, encourage dishonesty once elected, and leave their offices captive to lobbyists. Yes, they're pretty much captive now, due to the extremely high costs of running campaigns in the age of the modern press. Cutting their salaries will make things worse. If you want to reign in Congressional excesses, push for campaign finance reform. It's badly needed for all kinds of reasons.