Congress Just Gave Itself A Raise While Threatening To Shut Down The Government, And Honestly, This Is The Most American Thing Ever
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a move that can only be described as the political equivalent of eating a bag of chips in front of your starving roommate and then blaming them for not having a job, the U.S. Congress has once again hurtled headfirst into a government shutdown crisis. But wait, there’s more. Because while they’re threatening to turn off the lights on national parks, halt food safety inspections, and stop paying the military, they quietly gave themselves a pay raise. Yes, you read that right. They’re about to crash the economy, but they made sure their own direct deposits are looking real cozy first.
Let’s rewind the tape, because this farce needs a little context. It’s fiscal year end in D.C., which means it’s time for the annual ritual where our elected officials pretend to be fiscally responsible adults while actually acting like a bunch of toddlers fighting over the last juice box. The government is currently running on fumes, funded by a Continuing Resolution that’s basically a legal way of saying “we didn’t do our homework, please give us an extension.” That CR expires on September 30th. If they don’t pass a new budget or another CR by then, we get a shutdown. That means non-essential federal workers get sent home, national parks become glorified trash dumps, and the entire country holds its breath while the adults in the room figure out if they can agree on the color of the sky.
But here’s the kicker, the part that should make you spit out your morning coffee: On the same day they were threatening to tank the economy, the House voted to give themselves a cost-of-living adjustment. It’s a built-in automatic raise tied to inflation. So while your grandma is trying to figure out if she can afford her heart medication, the people who are supposed to be helping her are getting a few extra grand in their pockets. It’s not like they need it. The base salary for a member of Congress is $174,000 a year. That’s more than three times the median household income in this country. But sure, let’s tie it to inflation. Because when milk goes up by fifty cents, the absolute last thing we want is for Congress to feel any financial pain. That would be cruel.
The logic, if you can call it that, is that this raise is meant to ensure that only rich people can afford to be in Congress. Wait, no, that’s the actual outcome. The stated reason is to attract “diverse talent” and prevent the job from becoming a pay cut for wealthy lawyers. Look, I get it. $174k in D.C. isn’t what it used to be. But neither is $50k in Des Moines, and that’s what most of their constituents are making. The optics here are so bad that they’re practically begging for a revolution. You can’t threaten to shut down the government over a budget dispute and then, in the same breath, vote to give yourself a raise. That’s like telling your landlord you can’t pay rent because you’re broke, and then walking in with a brand new Gucci belt.
And let’s talk about what a shutdown actually means, because we’ve become so desensitized to these threats that we forget the human cost. During the last shutdown, which lasted 35 days in 2018-2019, TSA agents called in sick en masse because they weren’t getting paid. Air travel became a nightmare. Food safety inspections were halted, meaning your bagged salad could have had a surprise guest. National Parks turned into open-air latrines because the trash wasn’t being picked up. And the people who took the biggest hit? Not the members of Congress. They still got paid. The Constitution says their salary can’t be changed during a current term, so they get a check no matter what. The federal workers who are considered “essential” have to work without pay. The ones who are “non-essential” get sent home without pay. Everyone loses except the people who caused the problem.
This time around, the fight is over the same tired crap: spending levels, border security, and the debt ceiling. The House Freedom Caucus, a group of chaos gremlins who think the government is a communist conspiracy, is demanding massive spending cuts. The Senate, which is run by people who can still form coherent sentences, is trying to pass a bipartisan bill. And Joe Biden is sitting in the White House like a dad who just heard his kids fighting in the back seat and is deciding which exit to pull over at. The result is a game of chicken where the only thing at stake is the entire functioning of the federal government. But hey, at least they’ll have their raise to comfort them while they watch the country burn.
The real issue, the one that nobody wants to talk about, is that this isn’t a bug in the system. It’s a feature. The government shutdown is a weapon. It’s a hostage negotiation tactic where the hostage is the American people. And like any good hostage taker, the people holding the gun are making sure they’re comfortable. They get their pay, their health insurance, their pensions. The only people who suffer are the ones who can least afford it. The TSA agent. The park ranger. The IRS clerk. The people who process your Social Security applications. They’re the ones who get the bill.
And the best part? After the shutdown ends, which it always does, they’ll all go back to their districts and give a speech about how they fought for the American people. They’ll hold a town hall and talk about their “principled stand.” They’ll smile for the cameras while the constituents who just missed two mortgage payments clap politely. It’s a sick, beautiful cycle that has become as American as apple pie and rampant consumer debt.
So here we are, on the brink of yet another shutdown. The House is a dumpster fire. The Senate is a slightly less dumpster-like dumpster fire. And the American people are
Final Thoughts
As a veteran of covering these fiscal brinkmanship dramas, the real story isn't the missed paychecks or closed parks—it's that shutdowns have become a normalized, cynical tool for scoring political points rather than resolving actual governance disputes. We’ve reached a point where the threat of a shutdown is less about fiscal discipline and more a ritualized hostage-taking, with essential services and public trust held ransom to the most extreme factions in each party. Ultimately, until we restore the basic principle that funding the government is a non-negotiable duty, not a bargaining chip, these self-inflicted crises will remain the most damning indictment of a broken political system.