Editorial: Federal workers go without pay as lawmakers take a break

Boston Herald editorial staff, Boston Herald on Apr 1, 2026

Published in Op Eds

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Let them eat giant turkey legs.

Members of Congress have been spotted at Disney World, home of the enormous treat, at casinos and ballgames during their two-week, so-called “work from district” time. Right after the Senate adjourned, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was spotted at Disney World with a bubble wand. Graham claims he was there to visit friends after lunch with special envoy Steve Witkoff and others, “about the possibility of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel.”

Meanwhile, thousands of Department of Homeland Security workers are still waiting for a paycheck.

As the New York Post reported, the House and Senate both adjourned last week despite talks to end the longest shutdown in US history crumbling. Imagine this in the private sector. When companies have a big project in the works and it’s crunch time, they limit or black out vacation days so there’s enough staff to get the job done.

Not on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers’ paychecks are constitutionally protected and keep on coming despite government shutdowns.

There “hardship for thee but not for me” is the order of the day, and if there was ever an act deserving of a “No Kings” protest, it’s this.

Speaking of those protests, several Congressional Democrats, such as Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, D-Fla., and others, were seen at “No Kings” protests this weekend, with the obligatory posting of rally photos.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., got virtue-signaling brownie points, posting a picture of himself next to late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel in Los Angeles at a “No Kings” rally.

Political pundits have been chiding Democrats for not speaking like “normal people.” Could they at least act like normal people? How many companies would keep workers who walk out the door for a nice break while the firm’s in the middle of a crisis?

The Beltway Bubble isn’t showing any signs of bursting. Earlier this month, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and California Congressman Ro Khanna, both millionaires, filed legislation that would impose a 5% wealth tax on billionaires.

It doesn’t tax income, but rather net worth. As a majority of Congressional members are millionaires, evading this money grab must be a huge relief.

Someone should tell them that it’s been tried in Europe, and failed spectacularly. As the Nation Review reported, more than a dozen European countries used to have wealth taxes, but nearly all of these countries repealed them, including Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Sweden. Wealth taxes survive only in Norway, Spain, and Switzerland.

One of the consequences of the tax was the exodus of billionaires from countries that imposed it. Sweden lost businesspeople and their capital. France imposed a wealth tax in 1982 and repealed it in 2017. Businesspeople and celebs made for the exits. The government estimated in 2017 that “some 10,000 people with 35 billion euros worth of assets left in the past 15 years” for tax reasons.

California is already seeing the mega-rich pack their bags amid its 2026 ballot measure for a “one-time” 5% wealth tax on billionaires.

But the political agenda too often overrides common sense. Gallivanting while federal workers go without pay shows that it overrides common decency as well.