Martyr Matt Gaetz promises do NOT get paid if the government shuts down – with Republicans still scrambling to make a deal with just five days left until federal money runs out

GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz wrote a letter Tuesday asking for his pay to be withheld in the event of a government shutdown.

In the event of a shutdown, members of Congress and the president continue to receive their wages, even though they are to blame for the impasse. Their staffers, like the rest of the federal government, do not.

Non-essential staff will be laid off, while essential staff will be forced to work without pay.

Gaetz has been at the center of the fight to prevent a shutdown due to his fight against a continuing resolution (CR) or emergency bill that would keep the government open beyond Saturday and give more time to come up with a spending plan for the to be developed in the longer term.

But the Florida Republican blamed Speaker Kevin McCarthy for failing to bring 12 single-issue spending bills to the House of Representatives with sharp cuts.

“Over the past eight months, Rep. Gaetz has consistently urged Chairman Kevin McCarthy (CA-20) to make good on his January promise and bring individual, single-issue spending bills to the House floor to be voted on with outstanding amendments for closure. However, because this did not happen, the country faces a possible expiration of credits at the end of the week,” Gaetz’s office wrote in a statement accompanying the letter.

The House of Representatives will vote Tuesday night on a rule to advance four of 12 spending bills, which could be an indication of how the rest of the week will go. The idea was pitched to McCarthy by Gaetz last week, after two failed votes on the defense spending bill.

McCarthy told reporters Tuesday that if he is successful in passing the rule to address these four bills, he will put a CR to a vote in the House of Representatives.

The speaker would have to flip five Republican holdouts who voted no last week on a line vote for the defense spending bill, a line vote that failed twice within 48 hours.

But even if the House of Representatives could pass 12 separate appropriations bills before noon on Sunday, the Senate would not pass the bills in their current form and the government would still go bankrupt.

And if McCarthy places a party-line CR in the House of Representatives, he must approve it and then work with the Democratic-led Senate on a CR that can pass both chambers.

But the speaker is in trouble because if he moves a CR passed by Democrats through his chamber, it could spark a movement to oust him by his right-wing opponents.

Gaetz himself has repeatedly raised the idea and pulled stunts like leaving a copy of his motion to vacate a home’s bathroom.

Under the rules McCarthy agreed to to take the gavel in January, only one member of his conference is needed to call a vote in the House of Representatives to impeach him.

Meanwhile, the Senate will vote tonight on the House of Representatives’ FAA reauthorization bill, a bill to which Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to attach a continuing resolution.

A successful vote on the rule would mean the House would immediately begin debating more than 100 amendments to the agriculture FDA spending bill. The rule also covers defense, state and homeland security spending.

Meanwhile, moderates in the House of Representatives have begun preparing their own bipartisan CR plans and looking for ways to advance them without the leadership’s blessing. Some moderate Republicans have said they would join Democrats in a discharge request, meaning they could force a CR vote on the floor if five Republicans and all Democrats agree.