A business owner's simple fix for Washington.

To every American who has ever run a business, signed a paycheck, or just paid their taxes —

I'm not a politician. I'm a business owner. And I think we've been doing this wrong for a long time. I won't pretend to have the perfect fix — but when I have a problem in my business, my solution is to attract and employ smart, capable people who share my values.

So I'll start with two things I think we all agree on:

• You get what you pay for.
• People respond to incentives.

If both of those are true, why are we surprised Washington is broken?

We have built a system where public service is a financial sacrifice for the talented and a financial opportunity for the corrupt.

A senator earns $174,000. The lobbyists working the halls outside their office earn five to ten times that. We should not be surprised by what that incentive structure produces.

And for the good people who do show up anyway — the ones serving right now with genuine conviction — that same system makes their job harder, their integrity more expensive, and their numbers smaller than they should be. This bill is for them too.

A note before we begin. I run insurance agencies and work in an industry regulated at the state and federal level. I have no illusion that I am without interests. What I can tell you is that the specific provisions of this bill — higher official salaries, blind trusts, campaign finance limits — would make it harder, not easier, for any industry including mine to exert the kind of donor influence that currently shapes regulation. I wrote it anyway because I think it's right.

In addition to attracting talent, we need to make it so that a handful of people can't use money to drown out the voices of the majority. Did you know that 19% of all campaign contributions in 2024 came from just 300 individuals and their families? That's up from 0.3% in 2010. And it's only going to get worse if we allow it.

These are not political problems. They are business problems. And like any business problem, the fix is straightforward.

§ IHere is the fix — one page, no fine print.

I don't claim to have every detail figured out. But I've been thinking about this for a long time, and I think the framework is right. What follows is a plain-language summary of the bill — written so that any American can read it, understand it, and decide whether they support it in five minutes.

The full legislative text — formatted and ready to be introduced on the floor of the House of Representatives on the first day of the 120th Congress — is one click away. Every person running for office should be asked, on the record, whether they will vote YES on it, substantively intact, with the four core sections preserved.

Section 1 — No more getting rich off the job.

In exchange for that salary, the following rules apply:

• All personal wealth must be placed in a blind trust while in office, managed by an approved independent third party and limited to broad-market investments like the S&P 500. No discretionary stock picking. No insider trading. No conflicts of interest.
• After leaving office, elected officials may not sit on corporate boards or accept paid speaking engagements for the following cooling-off periods: House — 5 years. Senate — 10 years. Vice President — 10 years. President — 15 years.
• No betting on outcomes you control. Elected officials cannot wager on prediction markets involving any outcome they have inside knowledge of by virtue of their office. A senator writing tax legislation cannot bet on whether it passes. A president who orders a military strike cannot profit from predicting it hours before the public knows. A regulator cannot place bets on enforcement actions they are about to announce. The same blind-trust rules that govern their stock portfolio govern their prediction-market accounts — all existing accounts disclosed and divested within 90 days. Willful violations are federal felonies — up to five years and fines of three times whatever they made. This is not a new idea — it's the oldest idea in democratic governance: the people who make the decisions cannot secretly profit from them.

You were elected to serve the American people. You should not be able to cash out that access the moment you leave.

Section 2 — Pay lawmakers what the job is worth.

• U.S. House Representatives: $1 million per year.
• U.S. Senators: $2 million per year.
• U.S. President: $5 million per year — split between the President and Vice President at the President's discretion.
• Shutdown Penalty: For every day the federal government is shut down due to a failure to pass a budget, every Representative, every Senator, and the President forfeits one full week's salary. That money is deposited into the Veterans Emergency Relief Fund within 72 hours of each shutdown day ending — not at the conclusion of the shutdown, per day, publicly reported, irrevocable. On day four of a shutdown, four weeks of forfeited salary has already moved to veterans. Every reporter in America can check the balance every morning.

I think we all want the best people running this country. The best people have options. If we want to compete with top private industry for the best talent, we have to pay accordingly. Think of it less as a gift and more as an investment in quality governance.

And for the ones who are already there doing it right — the ones resisting the current system on principle alone — a competitive salary removes the quiet, constant financial pressure that no person of integrity should have to fight by themselves.

"But doesn't that cost a fortune?"

Here's the math.

Paying all 535 members of Congress and the President at these new rates costs approximately $640 million per year. The current federal budget is $7.4 trillion. That means the entire cost of these salaries is well under 0.01% of what the government already spends — a rounding error.

For you personally, that's about $4 per year. Thirty-two cents a month. Less than a can of soda. If paying 32 cents a month attracts dramatically better people to run this country and removes their financial motive to be corrupt, that is the greatest return on investment in American history.

§ IIWho this bill is actually for.

Here is a number that doesn't get talked about enough: approximately 100 million Americans — roughly one in three voting-age Americans — have a direct financial stake in this bill passing.

Here's the math.

The small business half of America.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses employ 59 million workers — nearly 46% of the entire private sector workforce. Add the 6.3 million small business owners themselves, and you have roughly 65 million Americans whose livelihoods depend on the kind of fair, predictable, corruption-free government this bill is designed to create.

Small businesses don't have lobbyists. They don't have PACs. They compete on merit every single day. This bill levels the political playing field to match.

The under-$60K workforce at large employers.

Large companies (500+ employees) employ roughly 60 million workers — the other half of the private sector workforce. The median individual income in America was $53,010 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2024), meaning more than half of all workers earn under $60,000. Applied to large-employer workers, that's approximately 33 to 35 million people working for large corporations and taking home less than $60K a year.

These are warehouse workers, nurses, truck drivers, teachers, office staff, and retail employees. They are not the shareholders. They are not the executives. And they are absolutely not the ones whose phone calls get returned in Washington right now.

The total.

Add those groups together — small business owners, small business employees, and lower-wage workers at large employers — and you get approximately 100 million Americans with a direct, concrete, economic interest in this bill becoming law.

That is more than half of the entire U.S. private sector workforce — roughly one in three voting-age Americans. This is not a niche issue. This is not a special interest. This is the majority of the working country asking for a government that works as hard as they do.

§ IIIOne person, one vote. No exceptions.

• Super PACs are strictly regulated. Individual contributions to any super PAC are capped at $50,000 per election cycle. No corporate, union, or non-individual money permitted. All expenditures over $500 disclosed to the FEC within 24 hours. No coordination with candidates or campaigns. Violations subject to civil and criminal penalties.
• Dark money is banned. All political expenditures must be fully disclosed to the FEC, including the true identity of the original source. Pass-through entities, shell organizations, and 501(c)(4) social welfare groups used to obscure donor identity are unlawful. Entities making expenditures exceeding $200 in a calendar year must disclose within 48 hours.
• Direct campaign contributions are capped. No individual, corporation, union, or other entity may contribute more than $3,000 to any single federal candidate per election cycle, inclusive of both primary and general elections. No loopholes. No bundling workarounds.

Right now, 19% of all political contributions in this country come from just 300 individuals and their families. That means a tiny group of people — regardless of which party they favor — has an outsized say in who runs your government.

That is not democracy. That is a pay-to-play system, and it has no place in a country where every citizen is supposed to have an equal voice.

When this passes, every American's voice counts the same. One person, one voice.

§ IVIf you want to run clean, we make it possible.

None of this matters if good people can't afford to run. The current system forces even the most principled candidate to spend half their time dialing for dollars from people who will eventually want something in return. This section changes that equation.

The Small Dollar Democracy Program.

Getting on stage requires early believers willing to take a chance on you before the crowd shows up. So the program works in two phases.

Phase 1 — Exploratory. Early supporters may contribute up to $25,000 during the exploratory phase — enough to get to Iowa, not enough to own anyone.

Phase 2 — Certified Small Dollar. Once a candidate formally declares and certifies to the FEC that they will accept no further contribution over $250 from any individual, PAC, corporation, or union — the 6-to-1 public match activates on every qualifying small-dollar donation going forward. Early donors above $250 are permanently frozen; they gave to get you on stage, not to own you. Certification is irrevocable.

You can start with early believers. You finish with the people.

This program is designed primarily to make it financially viable for talented Americans who have never held federal office to run for it — and win.

The entire program costs less than 0.03% of the federal budget per election cycle and is disclosed right on the ballot.

Candidates who can win on small dollars don't owe anyone anything when they get there.

Why this works.

• High pay attracts talented people who don't need to be bought.
• Strict rules mean there's nothing left to buy.
• Real penalties mean the risk of corruption outweighs the reward.
• The American people become the most important constituency again — because we're the only ones left in the room.
• Candidates who can win on small dollars don't owe anyone anything when they get there.

What I'm asking you to do.

Nothing complicated.

• Read this.
• Share it — by email, by text, on every platform you have.
• When election season comes, ask every candidate on your ballot:

Vote accordingly.

This is not left. This is not right. This is just good business sense applied to the most important organization in the world.

But first — the primaries.

Most Americans never vote in a primary. Turnout in primary elections typically runs between 15 and 20 percent of eligible voters. That means the entire field of candidates you see in November — the only choices you'll have — was decided by one in five of your neighbors.

That has to change.

The litmus test in this letter only works if there are candidates worth voting for in the first place. Primaries are where bad incumbents get replaced and where good challengers earn the right to be on the ballot. If you sit out the primary, you're handing that decision to someone else — and then wondering in November why your only choices are bad and worse.

Here's what primary involvement looks like in practice: it means showing up to vote in your party's primary, regardless of party. It means asking the same question — "Will you vote YES on this bill?" — of every primary candidate, not just the ones in the general. And it means being willing to support a challenger over an incumbent if the incumbent won't answer yes.

The general election is the final exam. The primary is where you decide who's allowed to take it.

Got pushback? We've heard it.

From "This will just attract more greedy people" to "The President's salary is obscene" to "This is hopeless — they'll just block it," we've put together a full guide to the thirteen most common objections and exactly how to respond to each one. If someone in your life pushes back, you'll be ready.

Read the Objections Guide

One last thing.

I want to say something directly to the person who read all of this and still feels like it won't matter.

I understand that feeling. I've had it too. After years of watching the same promises get made and broken, the same scandals get forgotten, the same people get richer while the rest of us work harder for less — hopelessness isn't irrational. It's a completely reasonable response to what we've been watching.

But here's what I need you to understand: that feeling of hopelessness is not an accident.

It is the intended result of a system that has spent decades making you feel like your participation doesn't matter. Because when you throw your hands up, they win by default.

When you stay home on Election Day, the major campaign contributors still show up. When you decide it's not worth trying, the people who benefit from keeping things exactly as they are celebrate. Your disengagement is not a protest. It is a gift to the people who have rigged the game and are counting on you to walk away from the table.

They have spent billions of dollars cultivating your cynicism. It is their most important investment. And every time one more person decides it's pointless and checks out, they get a return on that investment.

The American Dream was never handed to anyone. It was built by people who kept showing up when it would have been easier to quit. Small business owners know this better than anyone. You don't get to open your doors on day one and have everything figured out. You get knocked down, you adapt, and you get back up. You do it because you believe the work is worth it.

This country is worth it. Don't give them the satisfaction. Let's make them earn it.