Rick Perry's 'dangerously unsound' plan for a part-time Congress

The struggling GOP presidential hopeful wants to overhaul Washington, but critics are quick to ridicule his plan to slash lawmaker pay and hours

Presidential hopeful Rick Perry
(Image credit: LARRY W. SMITH/epa/Corbis)

On Tuesday, in an apparent bid to rescue his faltering presidential campaign, Republican Rick Perry proposed a radical plan to "uproot and overhaul Washington." Perry wants to cut in half the time members of Congress spend in the capital, and slash their pay by as much as three-quarters. The Texas governor also pledged to reform the judiciary by ending lifetime appointments for judges — including those on the Supreme Court. There appears to be little chance that Perry could ever enact such far-reaching changes. But should we take them seriously?

These are "terrible" ideas: Perry's plan to turn the demands of being a congressman into a part-time job is "dangerously unsound," says Matthew Yglesias at ThinkProgress. Forcing elected officials to get day jobs would make them more susceptible to corruption, not less. It would also be a drain on their time, leaving them more dependent than ever on lobbyists to provide information on pending bills.

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