...in 1843...Thomas Carlyle wrote, 'A fair day's wages for a fair day's work: it is as just a demand as governed men ever made of the governing. It is the everlasting right of man.'
Thirteen years later...Congress turned that thought around, passing one of the few laws which are applicable to that body.
It docked senators and congressmen who failed to deliver a day's work for a day's wages.
...The law still is on the books but has been 'forgotten.'
The Foundation for the Study of Presidential and Congressional Terms recently released information showing...no such deductions have been made 'in years' and that a whopping $1,679,854 could have been withheld from...senators and congressmen absent a day or more during the first session of the 95th Congress.
In 1914, the House decided it was too cumbersome to take attendance every day, and they have ignored the rule ever since.
The Senate hasn't said much of anything.
But then, Congress has exempted itself from Social Security, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, etc., so what's one more rule...
This question may come down to this then, dear reader: Should the Congress be docked for staying away? Or for showing up?
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