Calls to cut members of Congress’ pay until Congress gets its act together
BOZEMAN, MT – U.S. Senator Steve Daines today joined Lawrence Jones on set on Fox and Friends live in Bozeman, Montana. Daines discussed the impending government shutdown and explained that it should be members of Congress that feel the pain of Congress’ failure to fund the government, not Montana taxpayers.
Watch the interview HERE.
Daines on the government shutdown:
“First of all, welcome to Montana. It’s my hometown of Bozeman. I went to kindergarten through college here. Look, for 25 consecutive years, Congress has not been able to pass all the appropriations bills before the end of the fiscal year. I was in the private sector for 28 years. If you did that in the private sector, you’re fired. We should put the pain on members of Congress. If you can’t get the budget bills passed, suspend their pay until they get it passed. Here’s the problem with the government shutdown, it costs the taxpayers billions of dollars for the disruptions. There’s no reason we should have to disrupt the services, cost the taxpayers more. Congress needs to act together. We’re $33 trillion in debt. Facing $2 trillion deficits. It’s time to cut spending. Get budgets passed. But this government shutdown nonsense, frankly, is going to hurt the American people, cost more money. It’s Congress that needs to get its act together.”
Daines on Congress’ inability to pass the 12 appropriations bills on time:
“It hasn’t happened in 25 consecutive years. It’s only happened four times in the last 50 years. There’s no accountability for Congress. That’s the problem. There’s no accountability. In other words, Congress is getting away with this. And so, we are going to try to get a bill passed next week called “Prevent Government Shutdowns” that simply says the government can’t shut down if Congress can’t get its act together, either suspend their pay or keep them in Washington, suspend their travel ‘till they get the job done. It will get their attention. They don’t want to do that because it puts pain on members of Congress. We’re going to fight for that next week.”