With his own department, DOGE, in the government led by Donald Trump, Elon Musk has been mercilessly firing federal employees while putting many employees on administrative leave. The Trump-Musk duo recently gave the fired USAID workers only 15 minutes to collect their belongings from their office space.
Moreover, Trump also supported Musk’s recent email fiasco, in which Musk demanded federal employees give five bullet points highlighting what they had accomplished last week. Musk even said that failing to respond to that email would result in termination, which again received a supporting nod from the American President.
While he is on his way to destroying various federal departments that do not align with the new political milieu that Trump and Musk want to create in America, Musk also recently suggested that politicians should be given a pay rise.
Musk’s main argument behind firing federal employees and downsizing various departments is that those people and the work they do apparently waste the taxpayers’ money. So, by slashing down various government departments and agencies, Musk ultimately aims to ensure that the American taxpayers’ money is put to good use.
However, it seems that Musk’s logic of cutting costs to save the American economy applies only to agencies like the USAID because he is all in for offering a pay hike to senior government workers and Congress members.
It might make sense to increase compensation for Congress and senior government employees to reduce the forcing function for corruption, as the latter might be as much as 1000 times more expensive to the public
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 27, 2025
Posting his suggestion on X, Musk said, “It might make sense to increase compensation for Congress and senior government employees to reduce … corruption, as the latter might be as much as 1000 times more expensive to the public.”
It should be noted here that Congress members currently receive a salary of $174,000, which comes with various benefits. The salaries of lawmakers have not increased since 2009. According to the Congressional Research Service, a maximum 3.8% hike can be granted in 2025, which would bring the congressmen’s salaries to $180,600.
Lawmakers themselves seemed divided on the salary hike issue. New York Democratic Congressman Pat Ryan said in December, “I cannot and will not vote to give myself more money when my constituents are feeling unbelievable financial pressure. Congress should be focused on lowering costs for the American people, not giving ourselves a raise. If this provision isn’t removed, I will be voting against the continuing resolution.”
Georgia GOP Rep. Austin Scott, on the other hand, had mentioned to Bloomberg Government that, according to him, it is “damaging to our democracy that we are creating a scenario under which middle-class Americans cannot afford to serve in Congress.”
On this same issue, New York Rep. Richie Torres told NPR, “We cannot operate as if there’s no inflation in the world. It turns out that members of Congress are subject to the impact of inflation as well — who would have thought?”
With such mixed suggestions and thoughts on hikes in Congressmen’s salaries, it now remains to be seen what Musk has to say further on this topic and how the Congressmen respond to it.
