Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on much these days, but you can bet they share an aversion to political suicide. Consider this week’s Senate vote on a bill related to government shutdowns.
On Wednesday, members of the upper chamber adopted a resolution to withhold their pay — most make $174,000 a year — during future shutdowns. The vote was unanimous. No surprise. Who’s willing to go on record demanding his or her own paychecks keep coming when federal workers are sent home without pay?
Shutdowns have become increasingly more common in recent years as political polarization grips Washington. During the recent dispute over Homeland Security funding, TSA agents, Coast Guard members and other workers in the department were forced to go without pay. Last year, when Democrats closed Washington in an effort to extend pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies, tens of thousands of workers went weeks without paychecks.
Yet members of Congress — arguably not doing the jobs they were elected to do — felt no such pain.
“Shutting down government should not be our default solution to our refusal to work out our issues and our differences,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana. He added, “Take your brain with you, because this is about shared sacrifice. This is about putting our money where our mouth is.”
The move, of course, is largely for show. The legislation doesn’t kick in until after the November elections, and, under the resolution, senators would receive back pay in full after a shutdown ends. Legislation insisting they forfeit rather than defer their salaries during shutdowns would be much more appropriate — although such a bill might technically run afoul of the 27th Amendment, which demands that “senators and representatives” face the voters before any pay adjustments may take effect.
A House measure calling for members’ pay to be placed in escrow for the duration of future shutdowns was introduced in October. It has yet to be heard. The GOP should move it forward as soon as possible. Even symbolic measures can prove useful.
Whether Kennedy’s resolution proves effective in encouraging compromise and discouraging political theater is a long shot, at best. But it’s simple common sense that our elected representatives should face consequences when they allow the government they’re supposed to be running to shut down to make a partisan point.
And on that, the vast majority of politicians and voters of all political persuasions will agree.
— Las Vegas Review-Journal
