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BY THOMAS L. KNAPP

“How can this be called a ‘continuing resolution,'” Elon Musk asked concerning Congress’s next-to-last stopgap government funding bill, “if it includes a 40% pay increase for Congress?”

The real number was 3.8%, but Musk’s little white lie played a part in tanking that bill and getting another one, with no raise, passed and signed.

Non-leadership members of the US Senate and House of Representatives receive “only” $174,000 per year in salary. They’d like to get more – at least automatic “cost of living” adjustments – but they’ve been thwarted in that desire since 2009.

Not counting expense allowances/reimbursements, they “only” get paid about twice the US per capita income. The poor dears.

Which brings me to my perennial proposal, perhaps for notice by Musk’s upcoming “Department of Government Efficiency,” concerning congressional pay.

DOGE won’t really be a government department, just an “advisory” commission that can make “recommendations” to cut costs, improve operations, etc. But I expect it will at least achieve “bully pulpit” status to move public opinion, MAYBE resulting in a few actions.

So let’s try this recommendation on for bully pulpit size:

Two thirds of both houses of Congress should propose, and three quarters of the state legislatures should ratify, a constitutional amendment permanently setting PRE-federal-income-tax congressional salary at the previous year’s POST-federal-income-tax personal per capita income.

If my calculations are correct (you know how it is with taxes – even the IRS never seems really sure how much they want from you), that would bring next year’s congressional salary in at a little under $66,000.

While that would save taxpayers some money right off the bat, it wouldn’t really amount to much – 535 members of Congress times savings of $74,000 per year each totals less than $40 million versus annual federal spending of around $6 trillion.

But direct savings is only a small part of the “efficiency” equation here.

Tying congressional pre-tax salaries to your post-tax income would encourage Congress to legislate in ways that increase your income and reduce your taxes.

Such legislation would itself entail increased “efficiency” – cutting government spending, reducing government regulation, avoiding costly wars, etc.

Would the politicians look hard for ways to game the new system? Of course. They’d probably give military personnel and other government employees big raises, while creating new taxes on you – probably disguised as “user fees” that wouldn’t count in the formula.

But you’d know what they were doing, and you’d know why.

Run with that, Elon! Happy New Year.

(Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism. He lives and works in north central Florida.)