GOP Rep. Lee Terry: You're 'dang straight' I'm keeping my paycheck during the shutdown

Dang straight he doesn't care

What a schmuck:

Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., was blunt when asked if he would continue collecting his paychecks during the shutdown.

"Dang straight," he said.

Terry suggested it's an irrelevant question because the situation would be resolved before long.

What about the other members who were donating or forgoing their pay?

"Whatever gets them good press," Terry said. "That's all that it's going to be. God bless them. But you know what? I've got a nice house and a kid in college, and I'll tell you we cannot handle it. Giving our paycheck away when you still worked and earned it? That's just not going to fly."

And how about all those federal employees—including Terry's own congressional aides—who are still required to work without pay, despite the shutdown Terry's party is responsible for? The lack of empathy, and the sense of entitlement, is extraordinary but unsurprising.

Terry's certainly not alone in expressing these sentiments (Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa said much the same thing), but a whole bunch of members of Congress feeling the same way only makes everything more appalling, not less so. But the good news is that, unlike a lot of other profoundly tone-deaf Republicans, Terry sits in a vulernable district and only narrowly won re-election last year. He may not be so lucky this time.