CONGRESSIONAL PAY: Reader Bill Wyatt offers a suggestion:

On your comments concerning Congressional pay, I agree that Congressmen and Senators are not on average overpaid (though there are plainly exceptions; Cynthia McKinney springs to mind). But, their compensation (and that of all elected officials) should be governed by the same rules that apply to the self-employed: quarterly estimated tax payments instead of withholding, inclusion in the social security system and payment of the “self-employment tax”, tax-free retirement plan contributions limited in the same way that HR-10 and 401(k) contributions are limited, no deduction for individual payment of health insurance premiums, etc. Any new burdens on the earnings of the self-employed should automatically apply to elected officials. To effect the change in treatment I would even support increasing their nominal pay by the amounts currently contributed to their pension and medical benefits programs (or their actuarial equivalents, since I’m sure that, like social security, these are simply “pay as you go” schemes).

Assuming rationality on the part of those who generally prefer power to money (or who at least prefer power to work as a means of getting money), this might align the interests of the governing class a bit more closely with those of the most dynamic segment of the private economy. Or at least spread the miseries of our current system a bit more widely.

Of course, if you really want change, just make every American, not just members of Congress, jump through all the hoops that afflict the self-employed. We’d have a revolution in under a year.