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Sen. Ashley Moody’s blunt observation — that a government shutdown “would have ended a long time ago” if Congress’ pay had been paused — is the common-sense answer every hardworking American already knows. Washington’s ruling class votes for themselves, then acts surprised when taxpayers lose patience; pausing lawmakers’ pay during a shutdown isn’t vindictiveness, it’s accountability. If members of Congress felt the pinch in their own wallets, deals would get done and the spectacle of dysfunction would stop being an acceptable pastime for political elites.
For months we’ve watched career politicians posture while real families miss paychecks and small businesses scramble, and yet lawmakers keep collecting theirs as if the rest of the country’s pain were merely a televised inconvenience. That moral hazard is the heart of the problem: why should the people who write the rules for the rest of us be exempt from the consequences of their own stalemates? Conservatives have been saying for years that incentives drive behavior — pause the pay, and you’ll see compromise replace chaos.
Democrats and anti-reform Republicans defend guaranteed pay through shutdowns with hollow appeals to procedure and decorum, but the public sees the truth: Washington protects itself first. It’s not about cruelty to legislators; it’s about restoring the basic American bargain that those who make the laws should live under them. If imposing a temporary pay pause ends a shutdown sooner and spares millions, then it is a patriotic and practical reform — not a partisan stunt.
Beyond the drama of funding fights, Sen. Moody also pushed to focus on lowering health insurance costs — a priority that should unite any elected official claiming to care about American families. Instead of expanding bureaucratic entitlements that balloon costs, true conservatives favor market-driven fixes: increased price transparency, expanded access to association health plans, and cross-state competition that give working people more affordable choices. Washington’s reflex is to tinker with more spending; the conservative reflex should be to remove government barriers that make insurance and care more expensive.
Those who cheer on government shutdown theatrics forget the human toll: furloughed public servants, delayed services, and uncertainty that ripples through the economy. Yet there’s a simple principle here that liberals never like to admit — when consequences exist for bad decisions, behavior changes fast. Let Washington feel the restraint the rest of us live under and watch their priorities shift from virtue-signaling to actual governance.
The answer is not to reward dysfunction with back pay or big bailouts; it’s to force transparency and responsibility. Congress should adopt a straightforward rule: no pay during any lapse in appropriations, and no retroactive compensation unless a majority of voters’ elected representatives explicitly approve it. That would end the perverse incentive structure that treats shutdowns like a political sport and would put pressure on leaders to negotiate in good faith.
Patriots want a government that works for the people, not a protected class that treats public service as a life raft from accountability. Sen. Moody’s common-sense stance is a message to every American fed up with Washington’s games: if lawmakers won’t act like responsible stewards of taxpayer money, then they shouldn’t be insulated from the consequences. It’s time to make political theater unaffordable for the elites and force our leaders back to the business of serving the country.
