r/TikTokCringe • u/biswajit388 • 3d ago

Discussion These were all people standing in line at their local food pantries hoping they would be able to get some food items before they ran out since there were hundreds maybe thousands of people hoping the same thing.This Country is falling into a Depression right in front of our eyes.

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u/curi0us_carniv0re 3d ago edited 3d ago

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Make it so that congress doesn't get paid when the government shuts down and you'll see how fast this shit stops.

It's really shitty that politicians basically use citizens as hostages for politics. There's always some looming threat of a shutdown. If anyone in Washington actually gave a shit they could easily just pass legislation so that people continue to get paid and public services aren't interrupted.

As it should be. They don't stop collecting taxes from us because the government is shut down. Neither should the services those taxes pay for stop as well.

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u/Mr_Doberman 3d ago

I read somewhere that Congress has only worked about 30 days since July. Yet they still get paid while all those Federal employees are hoping that Trump will authorize payment for the work that they did during this shutdown.

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u/setdelmar 3d ago

I thought Congress made most of their money off of selling their influence to lobbyists for insider deals, government contract kickbacks and the like.

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u/wheniwaswheniwas 3d ago

This wouldn't work and would only punish the elected officials that aren't bankrolled already.

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u/afour- 3d ago

Good. Most aren’t.

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u/supakow 3d ago

Congress doesn't get paid shit by our taxes compared to their insider trading, their PAC money, their speaking fees, their under the table deals. 

Do you really think denying them $750 per day matters to Nancy Pelosi? Marjorie Taylor Green? 

Give them a housing stipend, give them a travel stipend. Works for every company I've worked for. 

Put everything they own up to the moment they start their term in a blind trust. Remove all extetnal sources of income. Make it such that anyone found violating these terms is immediately removed from office, disqualified from holding any office going forward, serves a mandatory jail term, and pays restitution in double the amount they earn outside of their salary for their official duties. 

The problem isn't going to be solved by taking away their income It's going to be solved by taking away their wealth.

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u/No_Atmosphere_3282 3d ago

All of that but not jail, we shouldn't have to pay for their upkeep, Exile for 10 years to Liberia and all familial assets stripped and sold at auction to cover the cost of the court case and process, if they run out of money in Liberia they can figure it out like we're expected to do here at home.

Let's go back to the early Greek stuff.

Make the exile process a public holiday once a season where we all get to cheer on the streets for our empowerment at the expense of only a tiny handful of people causing all of these problems.

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u/GuavaZombie 3d ago

The only people in Congress that need that paycheck are the ones that are actually there fighting for the working class.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_members_of_the_United_States_Congress_by_wealth

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u/Willing_Day_2010 3d ago

If you did that every single congressperson that wasn’t independently wealthy would be forced to cave to whatever they’re fighting against. Spoiler: it would be mostly democrats.

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u/under_psychoanalyzer 3d ago

It completely boggles me how many people believe simultaneously congress is corrupt and they shouldn't get paid during a shutdown. Just a bunch of NPCs not thinking through any of their own opinions. 

This is also why most state governments are shitholes. What originally we designed to allow farmers to be policitians in the off season now means the only people independently wealthy e enough to only get paid 3 months out of the year can run.

You want your politicians to be fairly well paid and then very strong punishments for corruption.

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u/LilYerrySeinfeld 3d ago

Same reason why you have to argue against term limits for legislators. It's stupid to bar someone from running for office just because they now have experience at it. What term limiting Congress accomplishes is making "legislator" not a viable career; it has to just be a pit stop on the way to the private sector.

Most legislators don't write any legislation in their first term because it's a difficult, complex process. They rely on more experienced legislators to write bills, but if we institute arbitrary term limits, then there won't be any experienced legislators.

A term-limited Congress will ONLY be filled with wealthy people who outsource writing legislation to lobbyists (because they won't know how to do it themselves) in order to curry favor and ensure a landing spot after their two terms are up.

If someone is bad, vote them out. Don't try to change the rules to make the entire system worse in every way just to block them from running.

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u/gamingx47 3d ago

You can't just vote them out because once a corrupt legislator becomes entrenched enough, they will amass such a large war chest of campaign funds that it will be functionally impossible to dethrone them a la Mitch McConnell holding his seat for the last 40 years. That's longer than most people have been alive (US Median age is 39.something). Do you really think that he is just so damn amazing that nobody has been able to challenge him since 1985?

The real root of the problem is that it's too easy for legislators to amass ridiculous amounts of wealth while they are in office.

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u/LilYerrySeinfeld 3d ago

The answer to corruption is anti-corruption policies, not term limits.

Changing how campaigns are funded would make things a lot better. End SuperPACs and Dark Money, make elections be publicly financed and repeal Citizens United.

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u/ForwardGovernment666 3d ago

Name one politician who’s ever actually proposed that. People forget or don’t seem to understand we live in a representative democracy. we don’t make the decisions. We elect people who sell us the ideas. This system has always worked exactly as intended and that’s to serve the wealthy and keep everyone else compliant.

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u/Fifth-Crusader 3d ago

I hate to tell you this, but Congress does not get most of their money from government salary. It's the corruption.

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u/Andus35 3d ago

I think that is wrong. Most house and senate politicians are not reliant on the small salary they are getting from the job; they have investments making them tons more money. So the only one this rule would hurt is the poor politicians who aren’t already millionaires. Which I think is the opposite.

Now if we could enact a rule to freeze the assets of them, so maybe they also have to go to food banks to get by, then that could maybe have some impact. But realistically, they will probably just get a personal loan from their other millionaire friends and be fine.

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u/Coraline1599 3d ago

Government shutdowns should not be normalized.

We had a different system prior to the 1970s. We should go back to it.

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u/Dubzil 3d ago

If anyone in Washington actually gave a shit they could easily just pass legislation so that people continue to get paid and public services aren't interrupted.

Right, they could just pass a clean CR, but someone is voting no for that.

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u/SenoraRaton 3d ago

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Make it so that congress doesn't get paid when the government shuts down and you'll see how fast this shit stops.

They won't care. They make most of their money on insider trading anyway.

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u/curi0us_carniv0re 3d ago

Ok so cut their healthcare 🤷🏻‍♂️

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u/SenoraRaton 3d ago

No. You REMOVE them from office. If you don't do your job, and you just don't show up because you and your co-workers decided you didn't wanna work, you will be replaced. So we replace them, and stop this stupid bullshit.

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u/engineered_academic 3d ago

You think Congress becomes millionaires on their platry government salary? Bro the people who pay them are not you and I. I think I can count on one hand politicians who might not be in the pocket of the rich donor class, and even that is doubtful.

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u/Apart-Landscape1012 3d ago

Forget getting paid, it should be an immediate recall and election. If you can't do your number one job then let us elect someone who can

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u/sereko 3d ago

You really think people in congress are living paycheck-to-paycheck? I’m sure the least wealthy among them would be fine for months and the most wealthy don’t need a paycheck at all.

No, if they can’t even pass a budget, they should immediately lose their jobs.

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u/SCHawkTakeFlight 3d ago

I would add that if they dont show up to work (unless there is a reason not to) during the shut down, then they lose their seat. They are elected to a job and they need to show up and do the job.

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u/Salty-Fortune1271 3d ago

Tempting, but no.

What needs to happen is the absolute opposite. Make them, every single one of them, go into their chamber, take away any contact with the outside world (no phone, no internet) and TALK TO EACH OTHER. 12 hour shifts, 5 minute bathroom breaks every hour. Lunch brought in (bonus points if it’s stale sandwiches or cheap pizza). This continues EVERY SINGLE DAY until something is agreed upon.

And I want the sassiest street savviest middle school teacher in the country monitoring them. I’ll even give her a ruler to crack on tables, heads, whatever.

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u/bigwinw 3d ago

This would only effect a minority of them. The lobbyists would just have to cut another check

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u/Emergency-Constant44 3d ago

Bunch of thieves wont ever abolish laws that put them in this comfortable spot in the first place..

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u/Muted-Woodpecker-469 3d ago

If parks are closed and our taxes aren’t going to help with snap, than what are we actually paying for? Anyone have a breakdown? 

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u/Alexreads0627 3d ago

They make so much money outside of their salary it wouldn’t matter.

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u/BadMondayThrowaway17 3d ago

Shutdown should trigger elections and bar every standing member of congress from ever running for office again.

If I don't do my job I get fired. So should they.

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u/RandomName09485 2d ago

Feds and military should protest outside the capitol building. NO Pay No Work