Congress: Hypocritical, shameless and self serving

Many members are deeming all of their staff members “essential,” meaning they will report to work as usual during the government shutdown and be paid for their services.  An estimated 800,000 other federal employees won’t be so fortunate.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) employs a small army at the House Government Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Wednesday he tweeted, “If gov’t shuts down, we won’t. I believe those who choose to come into work fall under my Constitutional arm. Accountability must continue.”

It is hard to believe the federal government cannot operate without even one of Rep Issa’s staff members for a single day. How did the nation get by last year, before he took the helm of the Oversight Committee?   

Further, who is he going to hold accountable?  Most of the employees at the agencies he’s investigating will be furloughed as non-essential. There won’t be anyone to ask for documents or to interview, and certainly there won’t be witnesses available for congressional hearings.

The hypocrisy is bipartisan. Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) plans to declare his staff to be essential as well.  It’s hard to imagine why, though. Rep. Cardoza has introduced only three bills this year, and members of the minority party in the House of Representatives have very little power. As DCCC Chairman Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) so eloquently stated in February, “being in the minority sucks.”

So, in Speaker Boehner’s wisdom, Americans can live without meat inspectors checking the safety of our food supply, but not without the Agriculture Committee? Without IRS employees issuing tax refunds, but not without the Ways and Means Committee? And without intelligence analysts monitoring the Middle East, but not without the Select Committee on Intelligence?

Further, while members of Congress continue doing nothing, with their full complement of staff, countless Americans spending their hard-earned dollars to bring their children on an educational vacation to Washington in these tough economic times will find their trips ruined. At the height of tourist season, the Capitol Visitors Center and all of the museums that make up the Smithsonian Institution will be closed. In other venues, tourists likely will face similar disappointment trying to visit any national park or see the Statue of Liberty, Pearl Harbor, and Mount Rushmore. 

I’m sure though, Americans around the country will breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Reps. Issa, Cardoza and countless other members and staff will be manning their stations while Americans pay the price for Congress’s buffoonery. 

Melanie Sloan is the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.