Ex-members of Congress gripe about $174K salary, cost of living in DC: ‘It’s very difficult’

Former and outgoing members of Congress from both parties agree that one of the biggest problems with the job is that they don’t make enough money, despite a six-figure salary — even as they acknowledge the Americans they represent don’t want to hear about it.

“If I go back to my district, where the average salary in some places is $32,000, and I say, ‘I don’t make enough,’ when I make $174,000, they would go ballistic,” former Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) told the New York Times in a video interview published Tuesday. “I’d be out of office in a heartbeat.” READ MORE