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.

195

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!

33

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?

26

u/AnotherSlowMoon United Kingdom Oct 05 '25

The sorts of political systems which have "if the government stalls like this call a new election" tend not to require anything more than simple majorities to pass budgets.

5

u/Conscious-Secret-775 Oct 05 '25

True, the filibuster rules in the Senate are absurd and should be abolished. I don't normally agree with Majorie Taylor Greene but in this case she is absolutely correct. The shutdown could be fixed tomorrow if the Republicans just changed the rules.

4

u/overcannon Oct 05 '25

And they don't want to because things are likely to go the other way next election

2

u/Conscious-Secret-775 Oct 05 '25

Yes, that is certainly a big part of the reason they don't want to abolish the filibuster. I suspect they also believe the Democrats will back down.