A nonpartisan suggestion for future shutdowns

Government shutdowns due to failures of budgeting are squarely the fault of Congress and the president. No matter which party controls which house of Congress or the Oval Office, the legislative and executive branches have failed to do their jobs.

Whether you deplore or cheer a given shutdown, including this one, you should feel a pang of pity for the folks caught in the middle: government employees. They are never the ones who cause shutdowns, but they're the ones who miss mortgage payments when shutdowns occur.

So if Congress and the president screw up and cause a shutdown, why shouldn't their salaries be docked until they fix their failure? Let the dollars that would otherwise go to the politicians instead go to the federal workers who are sidelined by the screwup. And neither Congress nor the president should receive back pay afterwards to make them whole. (Furloughed workers should still be made whole, minus whatever they got during the shutdown.)

Oh, and why shouldn't Congress and the president have to stay in session in D.C. until they fix things?

The docked salaries would only be a pittance compared to what the furloughed federal workers should have earned, but at least our elected representatives would share the pain they inflict by not doing their jobs.