When shutdown ends ...........

[boomerang]

That's true, but the flip side was that Congress considered home to be D.C. and were principally concerned with keeping happy the people in D.C., NOT the people who they nominally were elected to represent. That kind of fellowship was increasingly screwing the American people who do not live in D.C. That kind of fellowship gives us legislation that is good for the people who do not live in D.C. and of course the oh so generous people who come to D.C. bearing gifts to ask for things whether or not it is good for the people back home. Case in point, tearing down tariffs in favor of global arbitrage.

All D.C. needs is a Congressional referee. For the House, send in John Roberts with a whistle, a Kennedy half dollar and a pair of ten-sided dice. Allot a given amount of time for each bill proportional to its budget and its printed size. Before that debate, each Congresscritter must read the entire bill and must state under oath that s/he has done so or else be locked in the coat closet for the duration of the debate. All debate must be televised live with all mics hot and must occur in the House or Senate main chamber, and America will vote via telephone ($2 per call) on what costume each party wears. Piss off the American people and come to work dressed in a chicken costume with pink bikini. When time has expired without agreement, Roberts blows the whistle, flips the coin to see which side wins, and rolls the ten-sided dice to see how much of their wishes they get. The Senate will be much the same, but each session there is a special mystery referee (selected randomly from all registered voters and wearing a Mexican wrestler mask.) Roberts will referee reconciliation votes when Howie Mandel is unavailable. Then the full SCOTUS has one hour (which will be televised live by the highest bidder, uncut with no commentary and only scrolling text banners for advertising except during potty breaks) to allocate that much of the bill to the victor. Being the referee, Roberts may vote only to break an impasse, but if there is no agreement (i.e. no plan has five clowns in gowns with Roberts' vote) then Roberts has one additional sudden death bonus half-hour to set the settlement while all the other justices must strip down to nineteenth century bathing suits and hit each other with rubber chickens.

That, bitches, is how one designs a working system of government that can turn a profit and is not so mindless boring that most Americans can't even say what is being debated in a given week.

Lotta caffeine today? :biggrin:

 

[MtnMan]

If my wife gets back pay most of you just gave her 3, 000 a week.

For doing nothing.

She is a hell of a lot cheaper than the 535 crooks that only work part time.

 

[Zaap]

If my wife gets back pay most of you just gave her 3, 000 a week.

For doing nothing.

I don't know what your wife does, but in the case of much of the federal government:

So WHAT'S changed?

 

[werepossum]

Lotta caffeine today? :biggrin:

Yup, how'd you know?

Actually I was waiting for a complex lighting calculation to finish and I just kept typing until then. But yeah, lotta caffeine.

 

[marvdmartian]

Would it help if you understood that they are not just different from the rest of us but better?

They should not get paid for any pay periods in which they collected unemployment but isn't there still a waiting period involved? In other words, they probably won't collect any unemployment.

All that would be required would be paying back whatever unemployment benefits were received. Since unemployment pays a percentage of your salary, it wouldn't be difficult, once the retroactive back pay hit their bank account.

 

[kia75]

Nobody knows who is getting paid. I think everybody agrees the essential workers who are working for free at the moment will eventually be paid but it's up to Congress.

In the past furloughed workers recieved a full salary but IMO the Tea Party doesn't want that to happen. If the tea party is broken, expect a full salary. If it's not then I wouldn't be surprised if there was little to no back-pay for workers.

Welcome to the same uncertainty we in the private sector live day in and day out.

I'm in the private sector and if my job was that crappy about paying me I'd quit. Actually, if my job was that crappy about paying me I'd probably sue. Promising to pay someone and not doing it is one of the crappiest things you can do. I don't know where you're working but is sure as heck isn't the private sector.

 

[LookBehindYou]

And the answer is apparently yes.


It's great for them that they'll get paid, but why the hell am I working (essential personnel) while they get a free paid vacation. It's kind of BS for the essential people that are now working as usual while their counterparts are getting free paid vacations.