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<DIV><FONT size=2>From: <EM>The New York Times</EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>
<DIV class=timestamp>April 6, 2011</DIV>
<DIV class=kicker></DIV>
<H1><NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">Why Pay
Congress?</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE>
<H6 class=byline>By <A class=meta-per
title="More Articles by Nicholas D. Kristof"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html?inline=nyt-per">NICHOLAS
D. KRISTOF</A></H6></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody><NYT_CORRECTION_TOP></NYT_CORRECTION_TOP>
<P>If we careen over a cliff on Friday and the American government shuts down,
hard-working federal workers will stop getting paychecks, but the members of
Congress responsible for the shutdown are expected to be paid as usual. </P>
<P>That’s partly because Congressional pay is not subject to the regular
appropriations process, and partly because of Constitutional concerns. <A
title="A Washington Post article"
href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/2chambers/2011/03/senate_moves_to_prohibit_lawma.html">The
Senate passed a bill</A> proposed by Barbara Boxer of California that would
suspend Congressional paychecks in any government shutdown, but the
Republican-controlled House has blocked it. House Republicans approved <A
title="PDF of the measure"
href="http://rules.house.gov/Media/file/PDF_112_1/Floor_Text/XML_362-INTRO_xml.pdf">a
similar pay suspension</A>, but it was embedded in legislation that has zero
chance of becoming law. </P>
<P>The upshot is that federal workers who do important work for the public —
cleaning up toxic waste, enrolling sick people into lifesaving medical trials,
answering medical hot lines, running national parks, processing passport
applications — risk being sent home and going unpaid. But members of Congress
would continue to receive $174,000 a year. As the humorist Andy Borowitz wrote
in a Twitter message: “That’s like eliminating the fire dept & sending
checks to the arsonists.” </P>
<P>In my travels lately, I’ve been trying to explain to Libyans, Egyptians,
Bahrainis, Chinese and others the benefits of a democratic system. But if
Congressional Republicans actually shut down the government this weekend, they
will be making a powerful argument for autocracy. Chinese television will be all
over the story. </P>
<P>If a high school student council refused to approve a budget so that student
activities had to be canceled — even as student leaders continued to pay
themselves stipends — a school board would probably cancel the entire experiment
in student democracy. But I can’t imagine high school students acting so
immature. </P>
<P>Some Republicans seem motivated to accept a government shutdown not only by a
terror of the Tea Party wing of their party but also by a profound
misunderstanding of fiscal policy. </P>
<P>“Our generation’s greatest challenge,” Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a
Republican, declared in an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal the other
day, “is an economy that isn’t growing, alongside a national debt that is.” </P>
<P>A fair number of Republicans share that sentiment, so let’s take a closer
look. To nitpick, it’s factually wrong. The economy has been growing since the
third quarter of 2009. The larger point is true. The economy is still
sputtering, unemployment is too high and debt is growing. </P>
<P>But one of the most basic principles of economics is that when an economy is
anemic, governments should use deficit spending as a fiscal stimulus, even
though that means an increase in debt. If Senator Rubio believes that the
response to a weak economy is to slash spending, he is embracing the approach
that Herbert Hoover discredited 80 years ago. </P>
<P>Republicans are correct that debt matters and that we need to address
America’s long-term deficits. That means trimming entitlement programs and
reducing the rise in health care spending that is eroding their viability; we
also probably need some tax increases. But while our long-term need is to rein
in deficit spending, our short-term need is to boost it. That’s why sensible
budget plans involve a short-term stimulus combined with long-term trims that
take effect when the economy is healthy again. </P>
<P>The Republican plan to address debt right now, in an economic trough, echoes
the horrendous mistake Japan made in the mid-1990s just as it was emerging from
its own deep recession. Japan collapsed right back into what became its “lost
decade” and now realizes that it should have nurtured a recovery before
addressing its debt problem. </P>
<P>I was living in Japan then <A title=" "
href="http://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/17/business/international-business-japan-economic-power-aside-seems-paralyzed-by-asia-crisis.html">and
referred to the prime minister</A> on the front page of The New York Times as
“Herbert Hoover” Hashimoto. So it only seems fair to refer now, if the shutdown
occurs, to the current speaker of the House as “Herbert Hoover” Boehner. </P>
<P>Imagine how disastrous it would be if the Republicans shut down government
for any length of time. Unpaid federal employees would cut back on shopping.
Some would miss house payments. Family members might drop out of college. The
I.R.S. might not be able to deliver some tax refunds. Small businesses would
stop getting government loans. In sum, after the Democratic stimulus, we would
have the Republican drag. </P>
<P>Republicans are also threatening to refuse to raise the government debt
ceiling. By July, that could mean a default on U.S. government bonds. The
Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, says that would be “<A title=" "
href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/04/usa-fed-idUKN0321426720110204">catastrophic</A>,”
and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner <A title=" "
href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/04/usa-fed-idUKN0321426720110204">warns</A>
that we could see “a financial crisis potentially more severe than the crisis
from which we are only now starting to recover.” </P>
<P>All this seems mind-bogglingly petty and pusillanimous. If members of
Congress shut down government and trigger a new financial crisis, then they
shouldn’t just have their own pay docked. They should also learn the discipline
of a market economy and be fired by the public that they are betraying. 
</P></DIV></NYT_TEXT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>_________________________________________</FONT></DIV><FONT
size=2>
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