Before Speaker of the House Paul Ryan finalizes a plan to reduce or eliminate The Affordable Care Act, Medicare or Medicaid — he should look at himself and other members of the House and Senate, who probably have the best jobs in the country.
Ryan himself has a salary of $223,000, free health care for the rest of his life, and God only knows what other perks go with his position.
United States Senate and House of Representatives members make $174,000 as of 2014 — probably more now.
The life of these professional politicians must not be too bad because many of them stay in Congress for 40 or 50 years.
When Congress is supposed to be working for the people, they go on more breaks than any profession I know.
Half of their time is spent soliciting people for money so they can be re-elected.
When they are in session, instead of working to meet the other party halfway — they try to “kill the bill” outright or shut down the government.
Our government is broken in many ways and the first thing I would do is create lifetime term limits of eight years for senators and representatives.
That way they will not get too comfortable in their jobs and will vote for what is right for the majority of the people — not just for their own constituents so they can be re-elected.
When we have poor leaders governing our country, hate and mistrust runs on down to the population they are supposed to lead.
This is part of the reason this country is so divided.
George DeSpirito
Williston Park
Readers Write: Cut Congress’ benefits 1st
