[quote]“Republicans have to realize how many significant gains we’ve made over the last three years, and we have, not only in cutting spending but in really turning the tide on other things," Ross told The New York Times. "We can’t lose all that when there’s no connection now between the shutdown and the funding of Obamacare." "I think now it’s a lot about pride," he added.[/quote] -Dennis Ross So the average income of a federal employee is ~$78,500. One paycheck would then roughly be $3,720. Assuming the 80,000 federal workers have missed out on a paycheck, they've collectively missed out on $261,600,000. That's how much the pride of one man in congress is worth. If his colleagues agree that this is now about pride, then obviously that would be applicable to them as well. At this point I don't care who's fault it is, who started it, etc. The fact that families are no longer getting paid because one man's, or a group's pride is now at stake, is disgusting. Yes they will be paid retroactively, but the fact that we're even in this situation because of someone's pride baffles me. But I guess that's politics in a nutshell.