Sen. Bill Cassidy just introduced a bill capping what political appointees can earn at congressional salary levels. His pitch: "If you're paid by taxpayers, you shouldn't make more than those who were elected by taxpayers." The counterpoint writes itself. A lot of federal agencies actually need people who know what they're doing, and the talent market for running complex bureaucracies doesn't care about Cassidy's egalitarian salary cap. Artificially capping executive pay while Congress votes itself raises has a specific smell to it. But yeah, $180K for running major federal agencies is genuinely undermarket for the role. This reads less like principled reform and more like theater about government waste that doesn't actually address why people are underpaid in the first place.