Part of the problem with our national government is a weak alignment in interest between high government officials in all three branches and the guy on the street.

Here’s a proposal for part of the solution: Pass a constitutional amendment fixing the salaries and pensions of the president, vice president, senators, congressmen and all federal judges at a multiple (not necessarily the same multiple for all of them, however) of the 20th percentile of family income. These are folks who are struggling hard to stay in their houses and put food on their tables, so if our congresscritters continue what they have been doing since 1981, their income will either stagnate or decline. Make the salary generous.

Interestingly enough, the income of the president and members of congress have actually been going down as a multiple of the 20th percentile’s family income. For instance, the president’s pay in 1951 was 51.2 times the 20th percentile’s family income (100,000/1953), whereas the multiple in 2003 was 16.6 (400,000/24,117). A fair multiple would be 25.

Congressional salaries, on the other hand, have moved less but still ought to be raised to at least a multiple of 10 times the 20th percentile.

Year Salary 20th per. multiple
1951 12500 1953 6.4
1969 42500 5000 8.5
1979 60662 8000 7.6
1994 133600 17949 7.4
2003 154700 24117 6.4

In order to reinforce this alignment, forbid all outside income, gifts or speculative earnings, irrespective of the source, to all these officials. All outside income goes into the treasury, period. No exceptions. That includes income from blind trusts and retirement income. Officials must live on their government salary as long as they remain in the government. If you happen to own a private jet, you can use it, but you must make the payments for it, maintain it and pay for fuel out of your government earnings. You get the idea ....

There are other provisions that could further strengthen that alignment. For instance, we could add an additional factor - the Gini ratio, a measure of income inequality that has been climbing ever since Ronald Reagan became president. Zero is perfect equality and 1 is total inequality. Subtract the Gini ratio from 1 and multiply the difference by the multiple above, increasing the multiple to meet the initial income target. Then the more unequal society becomes, the higher the Gini index goes, and the folks ultimately responsible for the increasing inequality get a taste of what it is like to see their incomes decline.

Another possibility would be to tie executive and legislative income to the minimum wage. The president’s income has declined compared the minimum wage, but Congress’s income has grown almost twice as fast as the minimum wage since 1951.

Establish a retirement system that enables public servants to retire with a generous stipend, on the condition that they do not lobby or work for the federal government or a corporation that does business with the government until they have been out of office at least 6 years.

Establish progressive tax brackets that are multiples of the 20th percentile of family incomes. In 2007 the 20th percentile earned $27,864, so any family earning less than $27,864 pays nothing, which is a good thing; at that income, taxes literally take food off the table. The brackets would then go $27,865-55,728; $55,729--83,592; $83,593--111,456, etc. If everyone’s income rises in the same proportion, then the brackets would proportionately expand and no one’s tax bite would change. If the income at the bottom stagnates, however, then the brackets stay put and the higher earners suffer tax bracket creep as their income increases. This would have the effect of aligning the interest of the wealthy with the welfare of the far-less-wealthy. It would then be in everyone’s interest to adopt policies to pull up the income at the bottom.

Needless to say, such an arrangement would have to be done by constitutional amendment, as no congress would vote to tie their incomes to the fortunes of the less well-off.

Finally, the money-chase for campaign contributions must cease. It is unrealistic (I originally wrote idiotic) to expect our representatives in Washington to do their job if they must spend most of their time begging the rich and powerful for campaign contributions. All elective federal offices simply must be financed by public funds and those funds must be dispensed in a way that will shorten the campaigns to a reasonable length. Television, radio and cable must, as a condition of doing business, furnish adequate prime time at no cost for the candidates to put their messages before the voters. If it takes a constitutional amendment to make this work, then enact it.

References:

http://www.uscourts.gov/judicialpay.pdf
http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/97-1011.pdf
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/histinc/f01AR.html
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/fedprssal.html
http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/histinc/f04.html