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.
Such a pathetically stupid fucking country.
If our elected officials fail to do their jobs and keep the government open, it should auto-initiate special elections to vote them out within 6 weeks.
basically the way it works in australia… the budget is considered a test of confidence
if the government can’t pass a budget, the PM has 2 choices: resign or call an election
if they refuse to do either of these things, the governor general can step in and dismiss them, in which case an intermediary government is appointed and elections are called ASAP
if you can’t perform the most basic function of governing, you sure as shit can’t do anything new and deal with issues as they arise
Would be nice, but unfortunately we can’t expect much more when this practice was set up during the Nixon administration, and executed first by Reagan.
Imagine, we made it near 200 years without such a thing as government shutdowns. Then poof, now we have only passed a budget on time 4 times in like 50 years. That would mean that Congress gets their job done about 8-10% of the time.