These 12 Lawmakers Agree: It's Time to Leave Congress | NYT Opinion

Even the insiders are fed up with Washington. To understand why, we put the same eight questions to House and Senate members in both parties who are on the way out, looking for patterns and prescriptions to get a handle on the place. Corruption, money, perks, frustrations, solutions — hear what they said about it all.

----------
Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

[ggjohnson]

Citizens United needs to be overturned

[cirella]

“I had to raise $250k to be on certain committees.” So Congress is like Scientology. You cant get to the next level of power unless you raise money for the group?

[sclrkzt]

So if these people are honest enough to say what the problems are, but leave Congress, what will we get as replacements?

[sashaz]

It sounds like it is corrupted if you need to buy a seat of the committee…

[Thor-Orion]

Campaign finance reform
Anti-Omnibus reform
Term limits
Anti-lobbyist reform

[UltraDoug]

Very insightful. My only criticism is how all of them seem to disassociate “corruption” with money pouring in from “special interest” that deeply affect voting decisions. If that’s not corruption I don’t know what is. Not evil, but corrupt as in ‘not in the people’s best interest’.

[sigoodman]

I'm always amused when politicians say that their salaries should keep up with inflation, all while the federal minimum wage hasn't budged since 2009. The minimum wage in 1974 was $2, which when adjusted for inflation is $16.10/h in today's money. The current minimum wage is $7.25...

[whimsicalhamster]

Money. They’re leaving to make $500K a year as lobbyists or sit on boards of corporations.

[ramsaydean]

The fact that not ONE of these politicians mentioned ending gerrymandering as a way to fix congress is both shameful and alarming.

[Jesse-eyxd]

Let's build them a dormitory in DC or Maryland.😂

[bwight]

WE NEED TERM LIMITS NOW…20, 30, 40+ years is way too long. If we don’t put term limits soon we will not get anything done.

[ElijahStewy]

It’s sorta upsetting that i don’t know any of these people.

[WindwardToEden]

Basically what they all said, was "congress is corrupt, but i'm not. It's them, and it's frustrating.'

Like Mark Twain said, "we have the best government money can buy."
We still do...unfortunately.

[tomalexander]

As someone from the UK, this was fascinating.

[caisis]

When Newt Gingrich took over as House Speaker in the 1990's HE'S the one who directly DEMANDED his party members disassociate themselves with those "across the aisle" and set about to intentionally foster an environment of animosity and hostility. HE set an agenda demanding his members stop cooperating, stop interacting, and outright stated he would no longer support most "compromise" or bi-partisan collaboration. MUCH of what has transpired over the last 30 years is DIRECTLY traceable to his "leadership" and the toxic environment he encouraged. While he's certainly not the ONLY one to do so, and a bit more than a decade later his counterpart in the Senate basically did the same thing by demanding that HIS members outright reject any and all proposals put forward from the White House. The current dysfunction started with N.G., became even worse with M. M., and "WE, the PEOPLE" would do well to remember that!

[FriscoDojenia]

Kilmer is my representative and it’s good to hear that Congress realizes that they are totally dysfunctional and trying a little to reform themselves. But it really is up to the public too in order to fix a broken system

[mickV]

I think it's essential that they reside in DC to allow them to continue to work on Mondays and Fridays. Make monthly stops back to their states to listen, be seen and update folks on progress/victory/defeat. Other than that they each have gobs of staff to field calls/letters from constituents throughout the month. I don't need to see my Rep in person, rather present at every hearing, proposal and vote in their respective house.
They should declare certain musts:
1. Cannot shutdown the Government for failure to reach budgetary agreements...keep pounding away with each needing to make concessions where possible to get it down.
2. Committee rules must not favor one party over the other.
3. There should be a mandatory number of bills to be considered each cycle, regardless of which party proposed them; with a set number of of them being chosen from the minority by the Majority's prioritization. Bills cannot simply languish in congress due to a blockade of all of them during a term.
4. No preferential or pork included in any bill. If a state is to receive a new bridge, is should because it was assessed to be the very worst in the nation, not just to get a specific representative's vote for a bill.
5. The nomination and approval of judges, specifically SC should occur whenever the vacancy exists; regardless of party in power.
6.Any salacious or insulting remarks (not critique) made against another representative, should be stricken from the record and the remainder of that representatives time forfeited for that round.
I'd love to hear others' ideas on the matter.

[Stargate]

Provide public housing to representatives in Congress instead of a pay raise. We shouldn’t encourage DC to become even more expensive.

[TheMister]

If Congress wants a pay raise, then give the rest of America a pay raise by raising min. wage. It's long overdue.

[kensteffes]

Its not been the peoples house since the 1970's.