Brit politicians follow US lead on disclosing tax filings, but should follow Texas

Dan Hannen:
...
The British MPs keenest to disclose their salaries are those who have no outside income. They boast that they "work for you full-time", but are we truly best served by men and women who depend wholly on the state? How will such dependency influence their attitude to taxation and spending?

If Britain wants to copy American politics, we'd do better to look at how the Texas state legislature operates, meeting for only 80 days every two years, and paying its representatives what is effectively compensation for their time rather than a salary. I can't help noticing that Texas is doing pretty well. Maybe the two things are connected.
The distrust of government by the early Texans has worked better than anyone imagined.  Give politicians a full-time job and they will think of more things government can do which will need from tax funding and lead to the kind of death spiral seen in Illinois and elsewhere, including Washington.

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