Here is a novel idea. All participants in a government shutdown should forfeit pay and benefits for the duration of this self-inflicted embarrassment. Have you no sense of shame to practically beg borrow and baby kiss your way into a public service entitlement then refuse to carry out your sworn oaths? I and others are fed up with the fact that you pass a plethora of laws that apply to Joe Sixpack but not to yourselves. As if that is not arrogant enough, you now refuse to carry out one of the three original constitutional mandates set forth — protect and defend from without and within. We seem to be making some progress on import and export issues. Obviously the third original mandate of a postal service is a bit of a money-losing complication. I would settle for Meat Loaf (two out of three) Get your thumb out or get thumb up for a ride out of D.C. Do your jobs.

T.S. Clark Dover