Congress Under-worked?

One of the complaints you often hear tossed around about Congress recently is that they never work. More specifically, Sen. Dick Durbin was on the Senate floor today railing on the outgoing Republican majority for, amongst other things, having scheduled only 100 days in session this year. He contends that this is like working a part time job and is indicative of the way the GOP runs things.

While I'm not sad to see Frist and Co. go, I think it's pretty laughable to argue that Congressmen and Senators work part time jobs. In session or not, being in Congress is a grueling job and one which is vastly under-compensated when compared to the time commitments and responsibilities associated with comparable roles in the private sector.

These public servants are expected to fly back to their districts/states nearly every weekend to meet with their constituents. How would you like to have to go to a parade or a breakfast or who know what else every Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Memorial Day, Labor day....you get the idea. I suspect that even free dinners with lobbyists, contributors, and whoever else wants a hour or two of your time gets old after a few months with 3-5 of these meals a week.

To be sure, there are Congressmen and Senators who do not take their job seriously, but I think they are the exception rather than the rule. They certainly don't all make intelligent decisions all the time, but to imply that their jobs are easy or that they are overpaid seems to be to be either a political swipe (in Sen. Durbin's case) or the product of a deep misunderstanding of what their jobs are really all about.