At first blush it seems wrong that Congress gets paid during a shut-down

[cthulu2016]

but within the logic of the thing, it would be worse if they didn't.

It is actually against the law for people covered by a shut-down to work at their jobs. (Seriously. Federal offices will collect Blackberrys and such to prevent covered personnel accidentally working at home during the shutdown.)

So if Congress was covered there would be no mechanism for ever re-authorizing government funding. It would be like locking your keys in the car.

That said... a rule that Congresspersons have to wear clown costumes during a shutdown would be fine with me.



(I think that the proper pluralization of Blackberry, the electronic product, is Blackberrys as opposed to blackberries, which would be correct for the berry. So I am over-ruling spell-check on that.)

[hlthe2b]

1. Given the Rethugs, at least have been paid for NO work for the entire session....

I think they owe us about two years worth...

[GeorgeGist]

2. It seems wrong to pay Republicans. Period.

[Agnosticsherbet]

3. It is the 27th amendment to the Constitution that keeps them paid.

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened.

[Trekologer]

4. Can they be made rather unfomfortable?

No electricity (heat, light, cooling) in the Capitol Building and offices, no telephone/internet service, no building maintenance (cleaning, garbage collection, etc), security...

[Riftaxe]

5. At first blush it is shame that anyone in the legislative or executive

branch gets paid at all, considering their rather pitiful work output.