A recent Fox News segment featuring Rep. Jeff Van Drew captured the anger millions of Americans feel as Washington lurches through yet another self-inflicted government shutdown, and he was right to warn that “there are no winners here” while urging steps like halting congressional pay until the crisis is resolved. The shutdown that began on October 1 has already shuttered services and left hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed or working without pay, a needless burden on working families who had nothing to do with the political stunt in D.C.
Hardworking taxpayers are watching while elites inside the Beltway play chicken with the livelihoods of military families, air traffic controllers, and everyday public servants who keep our country running. The human cost of this shutdown is real and immediate: agencies are scaling back, SNAP and other critical programs face gaps, and local economies tied to federal activity are being squeezed for political leverage. This is not governance — it’s a spectacle that punishes the innocent while career politicians posture for headlines.
Van Drew’s blunt assessment that both parties share blame rings true for many Americans fed up with the dysfunction, but conservative patriots shouldn’t be shy about naming which side is driving many of the reckless demands that sparked this mess. Meanwhile, members from both parties have floated practical remedies to rein in the chaos, including long-standing proposals to withhold congressional pay during shutdowns — a simple accountability measure long championed by fiscal conservatives. Lawmakers like Senator Rick Scott have pushed the “No Budget, No Pay” idea in past fights, and new bills this month have targeted member pay as the public’s outrage has mounted.
Make no mistake: Democrats and left-wing leaders have repeatedly weaponized entitlement expansions and budget gimmicks as bargaining chips, demanding permanent policy changes in exchange for reopening the government while many Americans go without. Republicans have advanced stopgap funding to keep agencies running, but the blame game and refusal to negotiate in good faith have led to repeated deadlocks that betray the nation’s priorities. This is the very definition of Washington failing the people it’s supposed to serve.
The remedy is obvious and patriotic: stop rewarding failure. Halting congressional pay until appropriations are passed would force priorities back to the people and give members of Congress the same consequences their constituents feel. If lawmakers want to keep their paychecks while refusing to do the job voters sent them to Washington to perform, they should be prepared for a public and political reckoning — and that’s the kind of pressure our republic was designed to tolerate.
We should also demand structural reforms so this chaos can never be weaponized again — require on-time appropriations, eliminate perverse incentives that reward brinkmanship, and make backpay for members conditional on an actual budget vote. Conservatives who love this country can and must lead on reforms that restore accountability and put taxpayers, veterans, and workers first. This isn’t about partisanship for the sake of winning; it’s about returning power to the people who fund this government.
Washington’s games have consequences, and the only way to stop the suffering is to squeeze the incentives that allow them. Call your representative, raise your voice, and refuse to normalize this behavior: Americans built this nation on duty, sacrifice, and common-sense accountability, and we should demand nothing less from those we elect to serve.
