Furloughed: Hour 24

Got my furlough letter at 9am yesterday.  Went straight home and ‘furloughed’ our babysitter, since I now have plenty of time to watch the kids.  So there’s one more person being held hostage by Todd Young (in continuing with yesterday’s theme).

Todd tried to play ‘Hero’ yesterday by requesting that he not be paid his salary while the government is shutdown, as if that somehow makes him more like the rest of the Federal employees who aren’t getting paid.  It’s more or less a shallow publicity stunt.  For most members of Congress, their salary is a small drop in the bucket compared to their other sources of income and wealth.  I’m guessing that Mrs. Hannigan (Jenny) can probably still go on buying whatever expensive stuff she wants, and I doubt that she will have to furlough her babysitter/nanny/housekeeper or whatever.  If this wasn’t meant as a publicity stunt and Todd thinks this really makes a difference, then he’s incredibly clueless about how this shutdown is impacting the people of his district.

I’ll have more later–it’s not like I have anything else to do.