No congressional pay

Opponents of the bill introduced by Rep. Rick Nolan, D-Minn., that would stop congressional pay during a government shutdown, contend that shutdown or not,

Congress members should be paid for doing their jobs.

But letting the government shut down means our legislature is patently failing to do its job. Shutting the government down is too dangerous to use as a bargaining chip.

For many, the shutdown seems irrelevant, its most obvious evidence less than painful.

A few tourists can’t go to some parks. Big whoop.

I guess it’s hard to see contaminants in our food. Usually the FDA checks for that, but not during a government shutdown.

You can’t see hunger, either. But with WIC and SNAP assistance running out, there will be a lot more of it.

And no one really knows what justice looks like, but the 15 victims of the West Fertilizer explosion certainly aren’t getting any now that the federal investigation into their deaths has been halted.

These services might be “nonessential” in political language, but that just means that without them our country won’t immediately implode.

Costs for the shutdown brought about in the name of fiscal responsibility are estimated to be up to $300 million a day.

Nolan’s bill may be idealistic. It probably won’t get passed, and it probably won’t prevent the shutdown card from being played in the future, but it’s the only real suggestion we have.

We need reform that makes shutdowns like these impossible. The current Congress won’t be able to manage that kind of legislation.

Until we can vote this Congress out of office, Nolan’s bill is the best shot we have at making representatives feel the shutdown they’ve inflicted on the rest of us.

­— casefarr@indiana.edu