Many others are also affected. SGI, in Fremont, issued a press release yesterday stating that the Company will miss its reveneu projections because federal orders have stopped coming in as of the shutdown. Lockheed Martin has made similar statements. Many government contractors and subcontractors will be forced to furlough employees. I am a lifelong Republican but am ashamed of what Republicans are doing in congress.

I am a furloughed federal worker, and of course I am upset at being told not to go to work. I am even more upset at the thought of paying people for not working! How can the fiscal conservatives, who are constantly running on about eliminating waste, justify voting for this? I do not deserve to be paid, and I will not accept any pay for the duration of the furlough.

Like Konrad M. Sosnow, "I am a lifelong Republican but am ashamed of what Republicans are doing in congress."

Richard, a furlough is not like being laid off. Of course, you should not be paid if you have been laid off. But, as a former Civil Servant who accepted back pay each time I was furloughed, I look on that back pay as akin to being paid for administrative leave--for example, when I got a day or half-day off on December 24. I hope you will reconsider and accept your back pay.

The "fiscal conservatives, who are constantly running on about eliminating waste," are, in my mind, the epitome of hypocrisy. The are perfectly content to spend big government bucks on things I consider wasteful, while complaining about money spent on things I consider essential.

Doug, it's not that simple. I am working on a project that has a fixed budget. If everyone on the project takes pay for doing no work, then we will run out of money before we are able to complete the project. We would be sacrificing our success to line our own pockets, a very short-sighted approach. Our funding agency will understand if we are behind schedule due to the furloughs, but if we squander the money on non-productive expenses we will not get any more money from them (and rightfully so).