Since the Federal Government shut down on Oct. 1, members of Congress are still being paid, which is completely reasonable.

The Federal Government shut down because Congress could not come up with a budget to fund our government. This has left millions of Americans who are Federal employees without pay until the government is back up and running.

The reason Congress is being paid is because of the 27th Amendment of the Constitution. The 27th Amendment states, “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.”

This Amendment makes it so Congress cannot vote to raise their salary. The tradeoff is that they cannot be paid any less, or not be paid at all, which is totally logical. It would be completely unfair for Congress to raise their pay because they voted on it. Anyone would vote to raise their pay, so, because they cannot change their pay, they have to be paid. This is a totally fair compromise.

Congress as a whole makes over $250,000 a day during the shutdown. People who are uninformed of the 27th Amendment are saying Congress is unfair and greedy, which is not the case at all. Congress has absolutely no say in whether they are paid or not. It is simply not up to them. People should not be angry that they are being paid because they did not choose this. It is just the way it is.

Senator Ted Cruz from Texas said, “I intend to donate my salary to charity for each day the government is shut down. Elected leaders should not be treated better than the American people.”

Along with Cruz, many more Congress members share that same opinion and will be donating their pay. If people knew this is why they wanted to still be paid, no one would be bashing Congress on this subject.

Others say that it is unfair, greedy and evil of Congress to be paid while millions are not being paid. However, the people who say these things have no idea that the 27th Amendment says they must earn a salary. People should educate themselves of our constitution and realize it is not Congress’ fault they are being paid. Almost all of the members of Congress are going to donate the money they earn to charity. They aren’t just going to pocket the money and ignore the fact that millions are not being paid because of them.

With the Government being shut down, people want to get mad at Congress for being paid. People should not be getting mad because it is in the Constitution that Congress will be paid no matter what.