I have a proposal

What is noticeable about this shutdown, like all past shutdowns, is that while thousands of government workers are furloughed or working without pay, and trying to figure out how to pay their mortgage and credit card bills and whether to return Christmas presents, members of Congress and the president are all on paid holiday, totally unaffected by the chaos they have unleashed on others. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb points out in his recent book Skin in the Game, it is immoral to make policy for others if one has no skin in the game.

Government shutdowns are highly disruptive, yet they have become a tool of political hardball by both parties.  We need to discourage that, and encourage more bipartisan efforts at compromise. So here is my suggestion:

Any time any portion of the government is shut down because of a failure of Congress and the president to pass and sign an appropriation bill in time, for whatever reason:

• a)      Both houses of Congress shall be required to remain in session 24 hours a day, all members of Congress shall be required to be present on the floor for a morning and evening roll call, and the president shall be required to remain in the White House, until the government is reopened


• b)      The pay of all members of Congress and their staffs, and the president and the White House political staff, shall be docked one week of pay for each day or partial day of the shutdown and shall not be eligible for back pay at the end of the shutdown.


• c)      If the government shutdown exceeds three days, all sitting members of Congress in both houses and the president shall become legally ineligible for re-election, on the grounds that they are obviously incapable of discharging their duties. In the case of a president in her or his second term who would already be ineligible for re-election, that president’s party forfeits 40 electoral votes in the next presidential election.

Of course Congress will get around this with continuing resolutions, and we ought to discourage that was well, but this at least will discourage the chaos of government shutdowns.