As it stands, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are earning far more than necessary to perform their jobs and live richly. We do not need to be paying public servants to tell us what we want. With a cap on House and Senate raises to simply keep pace with the value of the US Dollar on a yearly basis, our representatives to the government would be closer to the people and less interested in their own paychecks.
Many people I have spoken with believe that congressmen go into politics only because of personal wants - specifically, money and fame. If it were more profitable for a person to stay out of politics and be, say, a businessman, then it would aid in filtering out those who lack integrity without imposing stricter requirements on those running for our government.