LETTER: Congress playing games with shutdown

Families stand in long TSA lines, anxious about missing flights. Kids grow restless, parents grow frustrated and airport workers do their best to keep things moving. Meanwhile, many of those same TSA officers are worrying about how they will pay their mortgages or put food on the table because Congress has failed to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

Congress’s failure to amounts to holding the American people hostage — especially the federal employees forced to work without pay or furloughed entirely. Border agents, TSA officers and Coast Guard personnel are still expected to protect the country while their own families wonder how they will cover groceries, rent and basic living expenses.

Meanwhile, members of Congress continue collecting their salaries while playing political games. It is a privileged class wielding power while ordinary Americans pay the price.

Public service should never mean using workers and families as bargaining chips. If Congress refuses to remember who they serve, then “We the People” should remind them at the ballot box by handing out a few well-earned pink slips.