The yearly salary for a Congress Member is $180,000.00 vs. the yearly salary of an active duty military member's $25,000.00, which is sadly less than minimum wage. 50 percent of the armed forces qualify for Medicaid, WIC and other public welfare programs because of the constant budget cuts. With Congress Member's salary of $180,000.00 starting, if we were to cut 10 percent of that it would put a huge dent in the country's debt and bring the economy back up.