- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
Millions of federal workers won’t get paid during a government shutdown. But the people who could prevent or end a shutdown — members of Congress — will still receive a paycheck.
That’s because their pay is protected under Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution, which states: “The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.”
The Constitution “says members will be paid,” Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, explained to reporters Tuesday.
Hot take: Congress should be paid during a shutdown
The wealthy members of congress don’t care about their salary. They already have large amounts of money made even bigger by insider trading, bribery, and the promise of a lucrative “consulting” role when they leave congress
The honest, working class members of congress rely on their salary. Taking away their salary would give a powerful tool for the wealthy congress members to force the working class members to vote with the wealthy members. It would also incentivize more corruption. Insider trading looks a whole lot more tempting when your income suddenly disappeared and you have $3,000 in rent due tomorrow
Cool, now use this kind of logic to protect the pay of federal employees during shutdowns.
Yup. All salaries should be paid but no buying anything and all buildings shutdown with utilities off. All current equippment should be considered to have a lean on them to cover us obligations and can’t be used.
It’s lien, but I’d also like someone to give all the equipment some lean so they can chill during the shutdown.
Since they can’t use equipment to me they should get paid but not do anything until sorted.
The employees should also be issued some lean so they can chill too, I like your style.
Why the fuck do our budgets even expire?
This just gives the people who want to destroy everything all the cards. If they can’t agree on a new one, let the old one continue. It shouldn’t be as simple as not doing anything to break literally everything.