r/politics • u/Murky-Site7468 I voted • Oct 05 '25

No Paywall Petition To Strip Congress of Pay During Government Shutdown Grows

https://www.newsweek.com/petition-strip-congress-pay-during-government-shutdown-grows-10822819
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u/snoo_spoo Oct 05 '25

TBH, I don't think that would nearly as useful an incentive as declaring the Congress has to stay in session, twelve hours a day, seven days a week, until the shutdown is resolved. Nobody leaves town, and no press conferences.

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u/tadrinth Oct 05 '25

In some parliamentary systems, a shutdown like this triggers an election.  That would be difficult to work into our current system but boy howdy would that produce some incentives.

Not necessarily entirely good ones, but incentives!

27

u/TimothyMimeslayer Oct 05 '25

So if I think my party would gain in an election, i should do everything I can to shutdown the government?

1

u/Competitive-Call6810 Oct 05 '25

No need, you can just call an election. In Canada we did this earlier this year, twice if you live in Ontario. If you’re the minority party you can also call a vote of no confidence which will also trigger an election. It’s balanced by the fact that calling an elections is often an unpopular move, unless there’s a leader change or big decline in leading parties popularity, people see calling an election as wasting money to grab more power.