UPDATE: Miss Thing must have gotten some heat over this, and she's now refusing her paycheck. Bless her heart!
Because of the ridiculous games that the Tea Party faction of the House Republicans insist on playing without any plan or end game, more than 800,000 federal employees have no idea when they'll see their next paycheck.
Some congresspeople feel bad about collecting paychecks while so much of DC struggles. Senator Al Franken announced that he would donate his pay to Second Harvest Heartland during the shutdown. Even Mitch Freakin' McConnell is donating his pay. All told, 123 congresscritters are refusing or donating their pay during the shutdown.
And then there's Renee Ellmers (R-natch)
Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) who told a local television station that she would not be deferring her pay during the government shutdown because she said,”I need my paycheck.”
She continued, “That’s the bottom line.”
Ellmers spoke with WTVD in Raleigh, N.C., adding, “I understand that there may be some other members who are deferring their paychecks, and I think that’s admirable. I’m not in that position.”
Well, isn't that special? According to TPM, Ellmers spent 21 years as a registered nurse before being elected to Congress in 2010. Her husband is a surgeon. I don't want to cast aspersions on their money management skills without any knowledge of Ellmer and her husband's lives, but it does seem to me that there are an awful lot of federal employees all over this country who would like to have that choice.
Oh, and that guy in the video walking behind Ellmer? That's Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana. So far, he's the only elected representative in Louisiana who has said he'll donate his paycheck. And that's a big sacrifice for Fleming, make no mistake. After all, he's the congressman who told us he was "struggling" to get by on $400,000 a year after feeding his family.
