House Republicans are still getting paid, but they are not showing up to work. At the same time, Republicans are forcing federal workers to work without pay while they get paid for not working. How Johnson didn’t see these terrible optics coming a mile away is a demonstration of how far in over his head this Speaker of the House is. Johnson, Thune, and Trump have bungled the whole shutdown. They don’t have a plan to get out of it, which is why Johnson is using his press conferences to do damage control.