The long-running stalemate in Washington has now entered another week, and what’s growing ever more intolerable is the way ordinary Americans are paying the price while those who are supposed to serve them continue to draw their salaries regardless. Forty-six million people depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for food security, tens of millions more rely on Medicaid for basic healthcare, and others count on subsidies under Affordable Care Act to keep their insurance afloat. These are not optional perks; they are lifelines. Yet while these programs teeter, the very people elected to stabilize them are off negotiating.
The premise is simple: If members of Congress and the Cabinet stopped being paid during the shutdown, they would have a far greater incentive to come to the table and resolve the impasse. It is indefensible that families struggle to put groceries on the table, clinics limit care, and vital subsidies hang in the balance, all while those who are supposed to act are shielded from any personal cost. A living wage for the sick or hungry is far more critical than pay for officials who have abandoned their post.
Accountability demands that when government stops functioning, the paychecks stop too. It’s not vengeance, it’s fairness. If the rules of democracy require that people step up and fulfil their obligations, then those same rules should apply to our elected representatives. Until they return to work and restore these essential services, their pay should be suspended—zero salary, zero retroactive full pay, no bonuses. Let the urgency of the situation penetrate the comfort zone of Capitol Hill.
Our nation cannot afford to wait while leaders gamble with the lives of the vulnerable and the dignity of the governed. The shutdown is not just a policy failure; it is a moral one. By refusing pay, Congress and the Cabinet would finally be facing the consequences of inaction. That might at last compel them to meet their most basic duty: govern.