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(Image source: Time / Gregg Segal)
BY ELIZABETH HAGEDORN
Food inspections halted ... (Via Food & Drug Administration)
National parks and monuments closed to visitors ... (Via National Park Serivce)
Cancer trials put on hold ... (Via National Cancer Institute)
Congress's swanky members-only gym?
Still open. Yes, the heated swimming pool, paddleball courts and sauna — all deemed
essential during this government shutdown. (Via Fox News)
Look familiar? It's of course, the same gym, ... frequented by former Democratic Congressman
Anthony ***. (Via TMZ)
So why were the House and Senate gyms spared when so many other government services were
shuttered?
To be fair, many members of Congress, mostly freshmen, sleep in their offices so they don't
have to spend money on a D.C. apartment. They use the gym as a place to shower. (Via CBS)
But as ThinkProgress reports, taxpayer dollars continue keep the lights on in the basketball
courts and the pools heated. According to the blog, "the decision to keep the gym open
.... [was] made by the Architect of the Capitol, but was done with the direct involvement Speaker
Boehner's office."
Sure, your representatives may be pumping iron on the public dime, but they are cutting
back. The Hill reports on one of the shutdown's more tragic consequences.
House members are being forced to reuse their towels! It's gotten so bad, they've taken
to air drying them in the locker rooms.
And it's not much better on the Senate side. Senator Lindsey Graham told ABC with the gym's
maintenance staff furloughed, quote, "It's getting to be a pretty rank place."
If that's not enough of an incentive to close down the place, Politico reports two House
Democrats are circulating a letting demanding Boehner put legislation on the floor to shutter
the gym for the rest of the shutdown.