The House of Representatives as ‘Nonessential Service’ | Eastern NC Now

Publisher's note: The author of this post is Mitch Kokai for the John Locke Foundation.

    Andrea Widburg of the American Thinker critiques the U.S. House's recent actions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The original plan in Washington, D.C., was for both the Senate and the House to reconvene on May 4. News broke on Tuesday, though, that the House will not be returning to work. It turns out that so many members of the House panicked at the thought of working once more for the American people that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was forced to announce that the House would remain closed next week. ...
• ... Pelosi's statement that "we had no choice" is a load of bull manure. All over America, people have been making choices to keep the country functional: Healthcare workers, truckers, factory workers, store clerks, sanitation workers, and many more. The list is endless. ...
• ... When it comes to the House of Representatives, the Capitol physician didn't - indeed, he couldn't - bar the door. He's just an excuse. What really happened is that a noisy or sizable percentage of our 435 representatives were too afraid to go to work and decided that their responsibilities to the American people are so limited, even meaningless, that no one would care about their absence. In essence, as Pradheep J. Shanker tweeted, House members just declared that they are non-essential workers. ...
• ... Members of the House are paid $174,000 per year. (Pelosi is paid $223,500, which is nothing compared to her $160 million net worth.) If they're not working, we should not be paying them. The taxpayers shell out almost $76.7 million annually to pay House members. Given that House members work an average of only 160 days per year, that's around $48,000 per day. If they're sitting at home for thirty days, we Americans are entitled to a $1.4 million refund.
• While you're thinking about paying the House all that money, keep in mind that the only thing the House accomplished in 2020 was a faked up impeachment. ...

    Follow Carolina Journal Online's continuing coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic HERE.