Rep. Andy Biggs doesn't seem to care if the military and others have to work without pay

Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs and his not-so-merry band of GOP followers in the Arizona delegation are among the most ardent proponents of shutting down the federal government in order to strongarm concessions from their weak-kneed Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy.

If a shutdown were to occur several million federal employees will go without paychecks. Some, like members of the military, law enforcement officers, air traffic controllers and others, will have to keep working.

Without pay. Members of Congress, of course, will continue to cash in.

Some of us believe there is an insensitivity, an arrogance, in a negotiation strategy that punishes millions of our brothers and sisters who have done nothing to warrant the treatment.

Biggs clearly doesn’t feel this way.

Furloughed workers are 'nonessential?'

In fact, in a recent post on X, formally Twitter, Biggs didn’t even mention those people, and made a shutdown seem like nothing at all. A ‘temporary pause’ he called it.

Biggs wrote:

“A government ‘shutdown’ is a misnomer. 85% of the government continues as usual. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are all paid in full. More accurately, it is a temporary pause in nonessential spending that would allow us to get our fiscal house in order.”

I’m not sure if the men and women who are furloughed without pay, or those who are required to work without pay, would agree with Biggs about being “nonessential.”

Biggs files childish bill: To defund Georgia prosecutor

There have been shutdowns of the federal government before. One happened in 2019.

Nothing in the law requires the federal government to provide back pay for furloughed and unpaid workers once a shutdown ends.

Last time, Biggs wouldn't OK backpay

But Congress decided to do so anyway.

Members recognized the hardship they’d put families through, using them as pawns for political reasons.

Some of them recognized that, anyway.

The bill to provide backpay to federal works passed the House that year by a vote of 411-7, with 16 members not voting.

Among the seven members of Congress who voted against doing the right thing for individuals whose livelihoods had been frozen and held hostage were two Republican congressmen from Arizona:

Rep. Paul Gosar and Rep. Andy Biggs.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Andy Biggs has a 'let them eat cake' view of the government shutdown