Congresspeople should be held accountable!
By flpoolbum
@flpoolbum (2978)
United States
December 29, 2012 8:20pm CST
It has been said that House Representatives and Senators miss a lot of votes. I think that voting on the issues is a LARGE AND IMPORTANT part of their jobs. I think that if a Congressperson misses more than three votes a year they should be penalized! I don't know how Congresspeople are paid. If they get regular paychecks they should be paid in accordance to the number of votes they cast. For example: If Senator X misses 50% of the votes during a payperiod, he or she should only get 50% of their regular salary on the paycheck for that period. Is their any other way to measure a Congresspersons attendance or way to be sure that they are actually working? They should be accountable for their time. If we don't go to work, we don't get paid. They shouldn't either!"
2 people like this
2 responses
@burrito88 (2774)
• United States
30 Dec 12
Congress is responsible for writing AND passing laws. They have committees that conduct investigations and review bills that are proposed as laws. Often when there is a large majority in favor of passing a law, it may not be necessary for everyone to be there. It only takes a majority of votes to pass something so why should everybody be there? When there IS a close vote, everyone should be there to vote and there have been many cases in history where a sick congressman is wheeled or carried into Congress to cast a vote. For example Ted Kennedy showed up for key votes when he was dying of brain cancer, because his vote was the deciding vote. During the same time frame, however, John McCain missed several key votes because he was campaigning for President.
@flpoolbum (2978)
• United States
8 Apr 13
That is a valid point. Unfortunately, there are some Congress people who are notorious for not showing up (including one in Florida) and those are the people I am thinking about.
@burrito88 (2774)
• United States
8 Apr 13
It's then up to the voters in those election districts to not re-elect those people. However, a real problem is that congressional election districts are drawn up to support re-elections. For example my state has a Republican governor and after the last census they redrew my election district moving my town from a Republican congressman's district to a district that had more Democrats. The Republican has unseated a long term Democrat and in his new more Republican district, he had a better chance to get re-elected. To my mind, districts should be drawn up by geography and not gerrymandered to support one party or the other or one ethnic group of the other.
@KrauseHome (36445)
• United States
7 Feb 13
It would be nice if they could be accountable for everything. It would make things a lot easier for sure. I have heard here in WA state, they do it to someone, so why not someone in higher office? It is true with a job unless Ill or on vacation we are held responsible and do not get paid, so doing that should be a good thing as well. Especially with the type of money they are paid.
