The Weekend at Bernie’s joke, propping up a dead man while everyone plays along, has moved from Democratic Party headquarters to Capitol Hill.
Lawmakers from both parties treat their seats like paid vacation, available to skip while taxpayers cover the tab and the public’s business sits unfinished.
The ghost votes
Rep. Frederica Wilson, the 83-year-old Florida Democrat from the 24th District, hadn’t cast a House vote since April 17, running up more than 40 straight missed roll calls. Her office gave no public explanation for nearly four weeks, until House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) confirmed she’d had major eye surgery and expected her to return shortly. The disclosure came only after the story went national. During her silence, her social media team recycled photographs from October and posted them as current events. Stagecraft, not service.
Across the aisle, Rep. Tom Kean Jr., the 57-year-old New Jersey Republican, hasn’t voted since March 5, more than 80 missed roll calls, including legislation to end the 75-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. His staff cites a personal health matter. Two months on, that remains the entirety of the public accounting. His district is considered a toss-up; four Democrats are competing for his seat, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is managing a majority thin enough that Kean’s absence alone can flip a party-line vote.
The pattern is structural
Kean and Wilson aren’t outliers. In the Senate last year, Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) missed 95 votes, the chamber’s worst record, while traveling nationally and taking paternity leave. Thom Tillis (R-NC) skipped 77 on his way out. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) logged 58. John Fetterman (D-PA) missed 30 floor votes in the first five months of 2025 and posted the third-worst attendance in 2024 following health complications.
In a Senate that held 659 roll calls in 2025, a near-record year, fewer than 20% were fully attended, and only three senators posted a perfect record. High absenteeism concentrates among members eyeing higher office, finishing careers, and managing health conditions. One empty chair in a thin House majority can determine the outcome on border security, a spending cut, or a tax bill.
Nick Tomboulides, CEO of U.S. Term Limits, identified the structural cause in comments to NBC News: “We don’t think senility is really the problem. We think incumbency is the problem, and senility is the symptom. Because when these incumbents can run effectively unopposed or under-opposed for so long, they really have no incentive to leave.”
Safe districts and decades of campaign war-chest building ensure most incumbents never face real pressure. They coast, sometimes well past the point of effectiveness.
The compensation structure makes accountability elusive. Rank-and-file members collect $174,000 annually, unchanged since 2009, plus subsidized health coverage and a federal pension that vests after five years of service at two to three times comparable private-sector rates. Unexplained absences change none of that. In any other field, weeks of no-shows without cause end employment. Congress exempted itself.
Critics note that illness is unpredictable, campaigns need attention, and family circumstances intervene. All true. None of that alters the job description: show up and vote on behalf of the people who elected you. When a health condition or personal circumstance genuinely prevents that for months, step aside or decline another term. Don’t maintain a placeholder on a primary ballot while staff runs a ghost operation.
The fix is constitutional
Term limits are the structural fix. A constitutional amendment capping House members at three terms and senators at two would break the cycle that allows career politicians to outlast their relevance. U.S. Term Limits is driving this through a state-led Article V convention; 34 states can call one, 38 can ratify, no congressional vote required. Back primary challengers who commit to limited service. Demand written explanations for any absence exceeding one week.
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The founders envisioned citizen legislators who served and returned to private life. They’d find the current arrangement — careerists operating from undisclosed locations while staff maintains the appearance of activity and campaign accounts grow — unrecognizable.
If a candidate asks for your vote, ask one question: Will you show up for every vote that matters? Too many incumbents are already the stiff in the corner at that Hamptons party, propped up while everyone agrees to look away.
Jay Rogers is a financial professional with more than 30 years of experience in private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and wealth management.