Why Pay Congress?
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.
The quote, and the title for this post I have appropriated, are both from Nicholas Kristof and this New York Times column In a sense the quote encapsulates what many Americans will be feeling if Congress shuts down the government - and thus more of the nation than most people realize - come the end of the day Friday. Kristof also uses the words of someone else to put this in perspective:
As the humorist Andy Borowitz wrote in a Twitter message: “That’s like eliminating the fire dept & sending checks to the arsonists.”
Kristof's is one of two important columns on the budget issue in today's papers that people should read. The other, by Matt Miller of the Center for American Progress, is called Ryan v. Obama - Is that all there is?
