Or is it the possibility that those in Congress can no longer get rich from contacts or insider knowledge and financial gains while in office will be investigated?

What’s more, there’s no reason to believe the list won’t grow longer. Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga told Politico retirement chatter among his colleagues is more prevalent on Capitol Hill than at any point in his congressional career, which began 12 years ago. “People are talking about it — more openly than they ever talked about it,” the Michigan congressman said. “Like wondering, ‘Is this really worth my time and effort?’”

And when it comes to understanding the numbers, that seems to be the key detail: Many members are walking away in disgust. A New York Times report summarized it this way:

After voters handed Republicans a narrow majority in the House, while expanding the Democratic majority in the Senate, most observers expected Congress to do very little. Members are failing to even clear even a low bar: A HuffPost analysis concluded that this Congress is on track to be the least productive since 1932.