PLEASE: Address the issue of congressional absences/ incapacity NOW. Lead & legislate

Please address the issue of incapacity personally and collectively. The recent extended and long unexplained absences of NJ Rep Tom Kean and Mitch McConnell point to several problems. First: Constituents are deprived of representation when their electeds are unable to be present or carry out their roles. Second: members of Congress draw a salary and enjoy benefits while ill or not at work that no constituents could have. This inequity is an injustice and prevents electeds from understanding the lives and pressures on those they represent. (Both Kean and McConnell voted to remove access to health insurance and health care from Americans. Other members have supported mandatory work requirements which their own congressional colleagues would fail.) Third, unexplained extended absences erode the norms and institutions of democracy. I ask you to address these issues: First please lead by example: make a public statement now setting out your promises for what you and your office will do if you yourself face illness or incapacity; tell us how you will share information, what you would disclose and what level of incapacity short of death would lead to your resignation. Such a public commitment to transparency is important: you can set an example and change the culture around these issues. Second: when you legislate about access to health care, subsidies, Medicare and Medicaid, be transparent about how proposed changes either increase or decrease the gulf between your own access and benefits and theirs. It is a moral abomination that this nation of unparalleled wealth is so poor in compassion that those you serve can lose their homes from medical debt while you who serve them can take a salary for weeks while hospitalised at public expense. Think about this. You should be outraged. We are. Fix it. Third: whether you are in the house or senate, acknowledge that extended unexplained absences like Mitch McConnell's bring Congress into disrepute; you need to counteract this problem. The lack of transparency about a member's grave condition erodes trust and accountability. It degrades our democracy. It shows contempt for norms; it hints at craven grasping at power over principles. Please address the lack of transparency around McConnell's medical situation. Do this with urgency. Demand that he appear in person and produce medical letters. Every one of your employed constituents would have to produce such documentation for an absence of weeks. Please start action on this issue today. Please reply to let me know what you will be doing.