So much for Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s promise that lawmakers were going to work four or five days a week.  Most Americans, of course, have mixed feelings about this kind of shirking by their elected representatives.  On the one hand, these jokers are being paid a full time salary ($174,000) two-and-one-half times the national median income for at best a quarter-time performance.  By that standard, they should take a 75 percent pay cut of $130,500, leaving them with the $43,500 salary they deserve.

On the other hand, it may be worth the $174,000 just to keep them out of Washington four or five days a week where they can’t do the nation harm by “legislating.”  In fact, we might want to think seriously about giving them a raise of, say $70,000 a year to stay home all the time.

The good news is that Members of Congress are generally at home at least four days a week (Friday through Monday) where constituents can get their hands on them.  This secret hidden in the open from constituents is vital for grass-roots organizations opposing ObamaCare to understand.  THEY DON’T NEED TO WAIT FOR CONGRESSIONAL RECESSES TO HAVE CONTACT WITH THEIR CONGRESSMEN AND SENATORS.  All they’ve got to do is be persistent four days out of seven, insisting that Members of Congress make themselves available to constituents at least one day every week, two when major bills such as healthcare legislation are under consideration.  There is no reason Members of Congress cannot hold at least one major meeting with constituents every week when something major is under legislative consideration.

Grass-roots groups have been somewhat uncertain what to do next to combat ObamaCare after the successful August recess demonstrations and town halls and the September 12 Two-Million-Citizen March on Washington.  Activists should take note:  It is time to track down your Members of Congress at home—they are there at least four days a week—and insist that they hear your voices when you say, “No Public Option,” “No Insurance Mandates,” “No Tax Increases,” “No Medicare Cuts,” “No New Entitlements,” “No jamming ANY health bill down our throats under Reconciliation.”  If they say they don’t have time to meet with you, they are dodging you.  Track them down; give them no place to hide; insist they do their job at home if they are not going to do it in Washington.

In fact, it is time to go the next step.  With the unveiling of the Senate Finance Committee Bill (The Baucus Bill)—the fifth major healthcare bill produced by a congressional committee this year—it is clear that Congress got it wrong five out of five times.  It is time, therefore, to demand that Congress STOP—STOP wasting time coming up with these white elephants; STOP wasting time trying to square the circle with a grandiose government takeover of healthcare that not only fails to fix the system’s real problems but also does irreparable damage to parts of the system that work well; STOP coming up with schemes to cut Medicare for old people; STOP looking for ways to raise taxes; STOP engineering new ways for government to intrude into people’s lives; STOP, PERIOD.  Give healthcare a rest and suspend consideration of major changes to the healthcare system until after the midterm elections when a new Congress can revisit the issue.

Here’s an idea:  Invite your Member of Congress to a town hall meeting and hold a fundraiser to increase their salary on the condition they stay home all the time and never go back to Washington.