A Republican consultant has figured out how to fix Congress: make its members richer!
Nearly all Americans agree that Congress has become a sad joke — a blight of irritating gnats.
How exciting, then, that a consultant to top Republican lawmakers has figured out how to fix Congress. Ready? Raise the members’ pay!
Golly, why didn’t I think of that? After all, who wants to work for only $174,000 a year (plus full health care, a really nice lifetime pension, and a flock of personal staffers to do the heavy lifting)? This congressional insider insists that such compensation is way too paltry for the best-and-brightest types of Congress needs, so they choose Wall Street or corporate careers, rather than public service.
“Ask any corporate leader,” he asserts, and they’ll say, “talent is everything.” And, he explains, it takes serious bucks to “attract and retain talent.” So, the answer to getting a better Congress is easy, he writes: “Let’s start by doubling their salaries.”
Excuse me, but let’s not.
While money is the reason Congress fails to represent the common good of America’s workday majority, their paychecks aren’t to blame. Rather, it’s the corrupting power of the unlimited dollars that corporations and billionaires are spewing into our elections and lobbying campaigns, literally buying the special-interest Congress that Americans despise.
The obvious problem with Congress is not that members don’t get enough money, but that they take too much. Don’t even think about raising congressional pay before outlawing congressional payoffs! Besides, anyone who’ll only commit to public service work if their pay is doubled is not committed to the public, to service, or even to work. They’re narcissists, committed to themselves — and Congress already has an excess of those.
How to “Rest in Peace” Naturally
May we take a minute to talk about your death?
And mine, too. I certainly don’t want to rush either one, but there is a matter we should all consider ahead of the “event.” Namely, the funeral.
The nature of one’s bodily disposal is, of course, unpleasant to discuss. So mostly we don’t. Thus, at our death, loved ones frantically try to decide between a crematorium and a coffin.
Both processes are awful to contemplate, are environmentally harmful, can be exorbitantly expensive, and are often emotionally unsatisfying for survivors. I can’t say there’s any good way to go, but is there a better way?
Yes, says an interesting “green burial” movement, offering the alternative of an affordable “adios” that truly does bring life full circle. With no need for embalming, burning or a steel sarcophagus, it provides a simplicity and an organic authenticity to life’s end.
The essence of it is minimalism. The expired body is literally and gently covered with heated plant material for a month or so, accelerating the work of microbes and fungi to convert us into soil. Yes, in short order, we become about a cubic yard of compost — new nutrient-rich earth that family or others can even spread to foster future life.
Adding to the holistic ethic, a cottage industry makes available home-made woven baskets, linen shrouds, and other organic provisions for our dearly departed. Also, rather than wearing mournful, black clothing to the funeral plot, mourners at a green burial gather in work clothes to assist in the farewell.
It’s a participatory continuum, carrying life forward. Maybe it’s not for you and yours — but maybe it is. To learn more, go to GreenBurialCouncil.org.
Twice elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Hightower is a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, spreading the message of progressive populism all across the American grassroots.
He broadcasts daily radio commentaries that are carried in more than 150 commercial and public stations and on the web.
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