Dang Democrats and their labor laws!

[Drake Tungsten]

The less time politicos spend in Washington the better for the American people.

Indeed. We'd all be better off if Congress took a few pointers from the French...

[DRoseDARs]

What I don't get is why they don't just video conference it all if they're so damned put out. Poor babies, after having to spend all that money to get elected and now being expected to do the job they were elected for. My liberal heart bleeds for thee.

[Timexwatch]

The more time members are here, the more time they have to raise money from "business interests". Period. The more nights they have to hang around D.C., the more time they have to do fundraisers at Cap Grille, Bobby Van's, Lobbyist X's office, etc. I'd rather have my representative back home 3-4 days a week listening to common folks rather than sitting in D.C. all week making trouble. Being employed by lobbyists, it is far harder for them to ply their trade when Congress is in three days a week. If they're in five, it gives them a lot more time to ply their trade. If Congress was in session from yesterday until Christmas, you bet it would be hog heaven down on K Street. They'd have enough time to get everything and anything into end of the year spending bills. As it stands, everyone wants something but nobody is getting a whole hell of a lot done.

Maybe four days a week in D.C. is a better choice, but 5 days a week leaves, effectively, one and a half days in the district for members. West coast members may even start to forgo completely trips home until recess. What happened to everyone *****ing about how their member was inside the beltway bubble?

[Dinner]

The short 3 day 4-6 hour work week is a travesty. They just don't stop to debate much of the merits and couldn't even get things like the national budget hashed out thus they were forced to roll everything into one giant omnibus bill which is WAAAAYYYYY easier to sneak in pork and ear marks. It's much better to actually pass the budget via a series of smaller bills giving people time to read through the whole thing so that unnecissary pork can be removed before the whole bill is passed.

This, of course, takes more time so it makes sense for politicians to actually work 40 hours per week to earn their $163,400 per year (not to mention life time pensions, gold plated medical coverage, and numerous other fringe benifits).

[TCO]

you didn't count the time spent sucking cheney.

[Addled Platypus]

thet just want more per diem pay, that's all