I thought lobbying was the money-maker, not salaries.Maybe that would further help attract people who see it as a public duty instead of folks looking to profit.
It is. That's the whole point. You don't spend $500k to get a $175k job, you spend $500k to get on the board of directors of Dropbox and to end up at a sweet, sweet K-street lobbying firm. Which is utterly ineffective if you cease to be the representative from Dallas and instead become the representative from 87629.
100% correct. Yes, we absolutely need to get lobbying money of politics, and you'd think it'd be a bipartisan thing, but notsomuch. Expanding the House would also help with the lobbying problem. It would complicate the logistics and reduce the amount given to each politician, making them less betrothed to lobbying interests, generally. Unless companies spent about 10x what their current lobbying budgets are. Some might? The idea of this SCOTUS re-interpreting the Citizen's United ruling is hilarious though. sobbing intensifies I know you know all this, but for posterity. People do apparently lurk.