how much does a congress member earn in a year? $165,200.
how many districts are there? 435
how many constituents in each district? average = 688,749
how does that rate of pay work out per constituent?
$165,200 per year
...........divided by 688,749 = 0.2398552 cents per constituent.
It would require 1.69 constitutents to pay for one .39 cent postage stamp.
From the Home page of theOffice of The Clerk U.S. House of Representatives click on Member Information then Member FAQS
Maybe it is time for us to think about making more congressional districts. The current number, 435, was determined almost one hundred years ago. America has added states and the population has grown and keeps on growing.
Yet, we have stuck with a formula devised in 1911. Like when Alaska and Hawaii came in, we didn't add representatives.
Our Constitution talks about the number 30,000 per district. Yeah it does. I know most folks don't think about it but that is the number mentioned in the Constitution. Article 1: Section 2, part 3 goes like this:
"...........within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one representative;........"
What I get out of that is, we could if we wanted to, have more representatives apportioned to the population. The founding fathers seemed to think the population shouldn't be diluted beyond 1 to 30,000. IF we took the current population and divided that by 30,000 the answer would = 9986.
Of course that is way too many representatives. They would never get anything done. That said, I still think we ought to think about adding congressional districts for these reasons:
1. States could use GPS and micro targeting to work out more representation for more ethnic races.
2. The power of the representative would be diluted, but his constitutents would gain some influence.
3. Elections could be done cheaper with smaller districts and fewer constitutents.
4. Adding representatives would close the gap between lobbyists on the hill and the congressional members who are now pretty badly outnumbered. I read there about 30,000 registered lobbyists in Washington DC.
5. There are too many safe seats now, adding districts would give us more honest elections.
6. IF districts are more ethnically diverse that would better reflect our country.
7. Current legislators work way to hard and get paid not enough when you think how many folks they are responsible for.
8. Constituents will find it easier to keep an eye on their Congress member.
9. Congress members would be able to go to Washington DC and work for the people instead of having to work on getting reelected and building up their campaign funds.
10. If campaigns were cheaper to run, maybe members could get reelected without all these 527's and swift boat guys and move on folks. Corporations wouldn't be running the country.
About Me
- jatinau_jb
- It's not the size of the dog in the fight that matters........ it's the size of the fight in the dog that determines the winner. Mark Twain