Why do we have to suffer because Congress didn't do their jobs?

Why do we have to suffer because Congress didn't do their jobs?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 10, 2013

My husband did his job in Vietnam much like my Dad did his in Korea. My Dad was 100% disabled and never once had to worry about not getting paid once his claim was approved. My husband and I were not so lucky because his claim took six years to have approved and yes, again, another 100% disabled veteran. They did their jobs and had to pay for it.

That last thing we thought was that we would end up suffering because Congress has not done their jobs.

How is it that it became acceptable to the American people for the Congress to refuse to work together and pass a budget?

Continuing Resolutions: The New Norm?
ABC News
By Amy Bingham
Sep 23, 2011

Unless Congress passes a continuing resolution in the next week, the federal government will shut down.

Sound familiar? It should. This is the ninth CR that Congress has had to pass this year to keep federal funds flowing to government agencies in the absence of a year-long budget. But this saga of stop-gap funding is not unique to the 112th Congress.

It had been 14 years since the House, the Senate and the president have all agreed on a bill to fund the government for an entire fiscal year. In the past 26 years, Congress and the president have agreed to a year-long budget only three times, in 1989, 1995 and 1997, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
read more here

By December 16, there was this piece of news.

The legislation, worth about $915 billion and covering the remainder of fiscal 2012, would set spending levels for the Defense Department and other federal agencies still operating under the continuing resolution. Fiscal 2012 began Oct. 1.

So what is really going on here? How much time did they play games to repeal the Affordable Care Act, take time off and then not come up with a budget that would pass the House and the Senate along with getting it signed by President Obama.

Want a Job With 239 Vacation Days? Become a Member of Congress and get paid $174,000 a year.

Compensation of Members of Congress and Related Benefits
Compensation

The most recent pay adjustment for Members of Congress was in January 2009.1 Since then, the compensation for most Senators, Representatives, Delegates, and the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico has been $174,000.

The only exceptions include the Speaker of the House ($223,500) and the President pro tempore of the Senate and the majority and minority leaders in the House and Senate ($193,400). Additional compensation is not provided to other Members of congressional leadership or committee chairs. Article I, Section 6, of the U.S. Constitution authorizes compensation for Members of Congress “ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.” Adjustments are governed by the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 and the 27th Amendment to the Constitution. Members of Congress only receive salaries during the terms for which they are elected.

We shouldn't have to go through this now and we shouldn't have to worry about going through this in another month.

Plus this latest deal doesn't even open the government back up again, but they still get their paychecks and us, well, we have disabled veterans unable to work for a living because they gave their bodies and too often their souls to the country for what the congress decided needed to be done at the time. The only time we matter to those folks in Washington is when they can use us for a speech to pretend they care.

I know it is easy to blame the Republicans for this mess and it is mostly their fault but the Democrats are not off the hook either. None of them got on TV to tell the American people what was coming when they were supposed to pass a budget to avoid sequestration.