Last week Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina said, "I believe the vacancy left open by Justice Antonin Scalia should not be filled until there is a new president." Senator John Cornyn, the majority whip, said that he would not even meet with a Supreme Court nominee: "I don't see the point in going through the motions, if we know what the outcome is to be." Senators Cornyn and Charles Grassley, members of the Judiciary Committee, signed on to the letter from the Republicans on the committee stating that the committee would not hold hearings on any nominee that President Obama would propose.
In 2012, Senator Burr cosponsored Senate Bill 3397, which would prohibit states from waiving the work requirements for welfare recipients. Senator Grassley also cosponsored that bill. In 2002, Senator Cornyn supported a work requirement for welfare recipients, that is, a rule that welfare recipients who refused to work shouldn't receive money from the government for not working.
Being slightly Calvinist at heart, I support the idea of withholding government money from people who are able and willing to do their jobs, but who simply don't want to. Senators Burr, Grassley, and Cornyn are on record as agreeing with me. Because they don't want to do part of their jobs, they should be willing to rebate a portion of their salary to the United States Treasury, perhaps 15% or so, as a sign of good faith. If they really don't want to perform a core function of the jobs they were elected to do, then they can give up the public payroll altogether.