Government “shutdowns” have occurred numerous times over the last few decades due to a lack of an approved budget, but the politicians we elect to provide funding have never been held accountable. It’s time for a change, but how?
Based on an email recently sent by Congressman Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara), it appears that the essential functions of government, those that almost 100 percent of American citizens who pay taxes count on, haven’t been “shut down” after all.
The government provides services that are not available from commercial sources such as the U.S. military, air traffic control, federal law enforcement, and services we pay extra for like mail delivery, Social Security, and Medicare.
And even though press reports and elected officials’ comments seem to imply that workers won’t be paid, just like all previous shutdowns government employees will be receive back pay when it’s over as required by the “Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019.”
While essential employees like air traffic controllers, federal law enforcement, and the military will continue working (unless they stage a sick-out), they also will be paid after the fact. Many others in nonessential roles will simply be paid for not working, basically a free vacation, after the politicians can figure out what to do.
Meanwhile, legislators have guaranteed that their pay will not be interrupted during the shutdown, even though they have failed to fund the government.
A point that’s always overlooked by the political class, but not by many of their constituents, is that if we can survive by only providing essential services, why can’t we function that way all the time and save American citizens a lot of tax money each year? All that extra stuff just seems to serve special interests.
For example, government funding for the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) was recently suspended. What happened? Private donors stepped in, and PBS remained “on the air.”
What really needs to happen, but probably never will, is that elected officials who can’t seem to produce a budget on time need to be held accountable. Relying on the ballot box for something like that has never worked in the past, so another solution needs to be developed.
If Congress really wanted to complete the budget on time, some of the more responsible members should introduce legislation that will stop all elected politicians from getting paid if the budget isn’t settled by Sept. 30. There would be no retroactive pay for elected officials while they work out a final funding bill, just for the boots on the ground that either had to remain on duty or were sent home because the political class didn’t complete the most important job they were elected to do.
This current shutdown could have been averted if a super majority of the Senate would have approved a seven-week continuing resolution to continue funding government operations until Congress can finish the budget process.
This time it’s Democrats that are refusing to approve the resolution until more than a trillion dollars is added; in some earlier cases it was Republicans that held the process up.
But the overall budget isn’t the only funding measure that Congress has failed to deliver. It’s also failed the 2018 Farm Bill, which was originally intended to assist farmers but has since morphed into a catchall funding mechanism for many “policies that individually might not have a majority of support in the legislative process,” according to congress.gov.
The Farm Bill is supposed to be reauthorized every five years, but the 2018 bill, which expired two years ago, is nowhere near the finish line as special interests continue to try and add more non-farm items.
I think that American citizens who pay for government services deserve far better service from Congress. Will we get it? It’s unlikely that any legislator will propose or support a plan that holds them accountable for doing their primary job.
Ron Fink writes to the Sun from Lompoc. Send comments for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Oct 16 – Oct 23, 2025.