who are involuntarily going to have to give up theirs. Talk about people who are living paycheck to paycheck.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/04/why-soldiers-wont-paid-obama-will-during-shutdown/36449/If lawmakers are unable to pass a budget before the April 8 deadline, soldiers will stop getting their paychecks. Meanwhile, President Obama, Speaker Boehner, and the rest of our federally elected representatives will continue to get paid. The comparison is quickly becoming the easiest way to frame the point of how the people who are responsible for averting a government shutdown will be shielded from its impact. Thus, headlines like "Boehner to Be Paid as Soldiers Wait If Government Closes," which is running on Julianna Goldman's Bloomberg report.
The President and members of Congress will be paid during a shutdown, in part because their salaries aren't paid out of regular appropriations bills but instead through a mandatory spending statute. If they want to change that, they'll have to pass new legislation. The Senate unanimously passed such a bill in March, but it went nowhere in the House. Some politicians are smart enough to realize this situation doesn't offer the best optics, which is why Sen. Joe Machin, Barbara Boxer, and several other legislators are now pledging that they won't take a salary if the government shuts down.