Click for Radio Podcast: Public Servants Representing Ordinary People (5:36)
Transcript:
I suppose it was kind of gimmicky. The Democratic challenger to an incumbent Republican Congressional Representative pledged, if elected, to give back a tenth of his paycheck. Brad Ashford, the Nebraska Democrat, would keep doing that until members of Congress cut their own paychecks by 10 percent.
There are lots of good reasons to reject a proposal to cut Congressional salaries. Corruption is a lot more tempting when you kind of need the money. Junkets to foreign lands, lavish free dinners, implied future career opportunities, none are really illegal. Sometimes officials who have developed a part-time business of raking it in can cross ethical lines into outright criminality.
At some point, attacking the pay of politicians, however emotionally satisfying – and truly, truly, it does provide a buzz – might not be good public policy.
The incumbent Republican, Lee Terry, did not disagree with cutting the pay of Congress because it’s bad policy. His indignation was more personal. It seems Congress has already gone too long without a raise, and enough is enough.
What he’s not telling you is that Congress hasn’t had a cost of living increase since 2006, when I led the charge for a freeze.
– Representative Lee Terry (R-NE),
Comments on KMTV, Omaha, August 11, 2014
Those bringing home considerably less than the $174,000 a year paid to their representatives in Congress might not be completely sympathetic.
Why would anyone in elective office say such a thing?
One possibility is a mere slip of the tongue. The pressure of live debate, the relentless presence of news outlets, can capture momentary lapses.
The problem with that theory is Representative Lee Terry has a bit of a history. It is not the first time he has complained about the financial hardship associated with public service. He was forced to apologize for similar comments during the Republican shutdown of government last year.
Federal workers and those working for companies doing business with the government were going without paychecks. Shouldn’t members of Congress give up their pay during the time they were forcing other families to live without?
…you know what? I’ve got a nice house and a kid in college, and I’ll tell you we cannot handle it. Giving our paycheck away when you still worked and earned it? That’s just not going to fly.
– Representative Lee Terry (R-NE), interviewed by
the Omaha World-Herald, Omaha, October 4, 2013
Similar stories surface from time to time. It is usually taken as evidence that some politicians are clueless, out of touch with the economic suffering endured by those they ought to be representing. In the case of Representative Terry, the seeming lack of concern is aggravated by his tireless opposition to any increase in the minimum wage.
Such incidents do illustrate a disconnect from life as it is experienced by those living with a significant level of financial anxiety. Comments like those for which Lee Terry is becoming known also illustrate an important part of human nature, a part most of us share.
I close my eyes and try to picture ordinary people. I find myself thinking of friends, co-workers, neighbors, worshipers at Sunday service, shoppers I meet in line at the pharmacy. And I find I’m thinking of people I meet and associate with. Ordinary people.
That is who most of us think of as ordinary, everyday people. Those we see and talk with. They are part of our daily routine. That’s human nature, and that’s part of the problem. What we see and who we see every day define what we know as ordinary.
As a young student studying government several decades ago, I participated for a few months in a special program that put me in Washington, DC.
I was impressed by one detail that I do not recall ever being reported. Senators and members of Congress do not open doors. Unless they deliberately look for doors, they probably never notice them. It’s part of a larger pattern.
As they walk the corridors, even walking the sidewalks near the Capitol Building, they are continuously surrounded by a circle of staff. Papers are passed and glanced at. Conversations continue. Schedules are changed. Decisions are made. It is all done without missing a step. Each elected official is surrounded by a moving, busy office.
The circle is sometimes broken by other office holders and by ever present money flashing lobbyists. Away from the traveling office, officials live near wealth. They shop and worship with the rich and powerful. It affects, it has to affect, what they think of as normal, daily routine, and who they regard as average, everyday folks.
In Congress, most work very hard, doing what they came to the nation’s capital to do.
They represent ordinary people.