Like many Americans, I have tried to comprehend why my government is shut down and potentially going to default. Some Republicans want us to believe that this is about lawmakers putting it all on the line for the good of our government, our democracy, even, as Speaker John Boehner mentions in just about every press conference, the fate of our grandchildren.

Here's where that logic breaks down entirely: these lawmakers haven't put it all on the line. Not even close. While over 800,000 workers were furloughed (without pay at present), members of Congress are not only still getting paid, their gym is still open.

That's right: the place where our congressmen go to work out was deemed an essential function of government that had to remain open during this standoff. That's how little personal skin these lawmakers have in this poker game they're playing with our government and nation's credibility. They aren't even being inconvenienced when they go to the gym, except for the fact that towel service is no longer available.

In just about any other profession, if you didn't do your job for two weeks, you would be fired. Can you imagine a McDonald's worker saying, sorry, but his principles prevented him from handling any food for two weeks? Or a big law firm telling a client they're going to miss a major court filing deadline? Outside of Capitol Hill, there are real consequences to not getting things done.

As a federal worker wrote to me:

Though I have not yet been furloughed (even though having been subject to such for six days out of this year so far), and though I am in pretty good shape financially and can most likely survive the current federal folly … Most (nearly 70%) of households in this country live paycheck-to-paycheck. And right now, pretty much everybody on the inside is really super-pissed. And the reason is the bastards who are doing this to us are not doing it to themselves.

The only thing this worker left out is that the rest of the public is also gobsmacked by this shutdown. A Public Policy Polling survey found that Congress is more unpopular than toenail fungus, dog poop, and cockroaches.

Markets and consumer confidence are wavering. Tourists are miffed that the US can't keep its parks and monuments open. Home-buyers and small businesses face delays on getting mortgages and loans.

As if that were not enough, the families of five US soldiers who died in combat aren't getting any compensation during the shutdown, and a California woman hasn't been able to get cancer treatments from the National Institutes of Health. This shutdown is more than political theater to people.

But our lawmakers don't get that because they aren't suffering much. There's now a petition on MoveOn.org with over 400,000 signatures that says "no pay for Congress during the shutdown". When you feel losses personally, you act differently. It's human nature.

The thing is, members of Congress always knew they would get paid – no matter how long the shutdown lasted. The 27th amendment to the constitution says:

No law, varying the compensation for the services of Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

It was first proposed by James Madison, but wasn't enacted until 1992. The great irony is that the rationale behind this amendment was to make sure Congress didn't give itself raises without public oversight. The idea was that if lawmakers had to wait until after an election, voters could have their say on the matter. Now, the amendment is being used to justify Congress' pay, not protect against inflating it.

I'd like to say that what's happening at the federal level is rare. But it's happened 17 times since 1976, and even more times at the state level. I covered the Pennsylvania state government that went 100 days without passing an annual budget in 2009.

There truly were government workers having to go to food banks and take out loans to pay their bills. Yet, you guessed it, state lawmakers were still getting paid for their daily expenses. Similar situations have occurred in recent years in California and Minnesota, according to the Pew Center for the States.

During the current shutdown, some representatives and senators want us to believe they are taking the moral high ground by "refusing" their pay during the shutdown or donating to charity. Since the Washington Post started calling around lawmakers' offices to ask about this, about 250 now say they don't plan to pocket their salaries from these two weeks.

But don't cry for them in Argentina, Washington, or anywhere else. They are still getting paid. That money is still being used to calculate their benefits and it's going into their bank accounts, even if they ultimately attempt to return it or give it to charity (which would yield a tax benefit for them).

I don't know how all of these shenanigans are going to end. But one thing is for certain: amendments can be revised, and there's a lot of support for one that clarifies that members of Congress lose their pay when they cause the government to shut down.

Oh, and their exclusive gym, taxpayer-funded transportation and premium parking spots are not essential functions of government, either.