Government shutdown sparks GOP plan to penalize lawmakers with new salary tax

A Senate Republican wants to ensure that lawmakers feel the pain in their wallets as the federal government shutdown drags on.

Members of Congress, unlike other federal employees, are guaranteed to get paid during a government shutdown. But Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, wants to impose a tax on lawmakers that would eat away at their paychecks.

Moreno plans to introduce the Stop Holding Up Taxpayers, Deny Wages On Washington’s Negligence (SHUTDOWN) Act, which would create a new tax specifically for lawmakers.

The shutdown has trudged on to a third day with no clear off-ramp in sight. The Senate is again set to vote on the GOP’s short-term funding extension on Friday, but Senate Democrats are again expected to block it.

‘Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries want to get paid for shutting the government down,’ Moreno said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘That’s ridiculous. If Congress can’t do the bare minimum, we don’t deserve a paycheck.’

Members of Congress on average make $174,000 a year. That number can fluctuate depending on whether a lawmaker is in a leadership position. Preventing lawmakers from getting paid during a shutdown is tricky, however, given that the U.S. Constitution requires them to receive a paycheck even if the government is closed.

Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution requires that ‘Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.’

Then there is the 27th Amendment, which was ratified in the 1992, that prevents Congress from passing a law affecting its pay during the current congressional term.

Moreno’s bill could circumvent those guardrails by imposing a daily tax on lawmakers that would rise each day that members are in session and that a shutdown continues.

Meanwhile, the likelihood that the shutdown ends this week is low. Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., are firmly rooted in their position that unless a deal is struck on expiring Obamacare tax credits, they’ll continue to block the GOP’s continuing resolution (CR).

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., plans to keep bringing the same bill, which the House passed last week, in a bid to chip away at Senate Democrats. So far, only three members of the Democratic caucus — Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, joined Republicans to vote for the bill.