Thomas Sowell, in a RealPolitics article Cheap Politicians, raised a subject I have waffled on for decades.Would Paying our federal elected officials a great deal more increase the quality of the governing body?  It would be a sour experience to pay a million a year salary to "those turkeys" we have in office now, but what incentive is there to attract a better class of senators and representatives.  The weak wills and minds of the majority of our congressmen need resort to deception,  shallow imagery, manipulation of support and robbing the national till to buy special interest votes.

There is little incentive for the best managers and thinkers in our nation to go into politics where they will make a tenth of what they can in the private sector.  If higher pay were combined with term limits and a time out period between seeking other elected offices; you would think we could easily recruit the best people out there at the top of their game.  They would be a group less affected by lobbyists and pork projects.  So lets say it costs us a half billion to do this.  But it may save us a trillion annually in government spending reduction.

This is of course optimistic daydreaming.  The current pompous bloviators, inspired by their newfound wealth, would fight the new breed of office seekers, with lies, ill formed logic, attacks and wild promises, while experienced problem solvers throw light on the old guard's political ponzi schemes and try to communicate actual ideas, sound plans, and core values to the voters.

Okay...that would be fun too.