Americans would save 93 million per year if salaries of congress were eliminated. (last time)

[HappySqurriel]

$93 million works out to being (roughly) 0.0025% of the US's federal budget ... not exactly what I would call a meaningful savings.

The runaway entitlement spending is the core problem with the budget and deficit, and it is not going to be addressed because it is a political "landmine". The issue is that these social programs are built off of good intentions with little/no evidence that they actually benefit anyone, but the majority of people don't care about results.