A U.S. Capitol police officer walks past a statue of Gerald Ford in the rotunda on Tuesday, October 1. The Capitol is closed to tours because of the government shutdown.
Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose 25 books include "Late Edition: A Love Story"; "Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War"; and "Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen."
(CNN) -- So, when can we expect our refund checks?
Because two can play this game.
On the one side of the federal government shutdown are the people whose job it is to run that government: the Congress and the White House. Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, liberals -- no one forced any of them to take those jobs. They wanted them. Then ran for them. They got them.
On the other side -- at least in a rational world, which this isn't -- is us. The taxpayers.
Congress still gets paid -- it's in the Constitution
We pay federal income tax with one solitary and bedrock expectation: We are handing our money over so that the federal government will run.
Some people may not like how the government operates; some may not care for a particular president or a particular member of Congress or a particular government program.
We accept that, as we pay our taxes. We pay those taxes because we have to. We know that we don't get to withhold those taxes just because we may dislike some of the people or programs the taxes are funding.
But when we are told that the government has been shut down-- that it has been closed for business -- that's different.
We paid for that service. We had no choice.
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If we had paid for an airline ticket, and in the middle of our trip the airline informed us that one leg of our journey had been canceled, we would justifiably demand a refund.
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If we ordered an annual subscription to 52 weeks of a magazine, and then, a few months into it, the magazine told us that its new policy was to publish only 26 issues a year, we would, with good reason, ask for half of our money back.
If we paid for a one-year membership in a health club, and the club announced that it would have to close for repairs for three months, we would expect a 25% refund.
So ... exactly when can we expect to see our refund checks from the federal government?
We have paid for it to operate.
And -- with the exception of what, for now, are being deemed certain essential functions -- it is not operating.
Opinion: Shutdown could be shock therapy
The people we have paid to operate it can blame each other all they want for what has happened. They can point fingers and say that it's all the other guys' fault.
But whoever ultimately shoulders the blame, the fact is that the people who hired them -- the American taxpayers -- are not getting what they paid for.
So the refunds, for the portions of government operations that have been shuttered, are owed. Or at least they should be owed, in any other kind of sane business.
The longer the shutdown continues, the larger the refunds should logically become. As if logic has had anything to do with any of these developments.
Congress and the White House might hear this request and say: That's preposterous. The government is hurting for funds -- it needs the money.
Well, many of the people who pay for the government to run are hurting for funds, too. They need the money, too.
The government, no matter what anyone thinks of its various policies, no matter where anyone positions himself or herself along the political and ideological continuum, is expected to do one thing:
Open its doors each morning.
When it doesn't, the people who paid for it to do just that have a right to propose that they are owed -- for services not rendered -- their money back.
With interest.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.
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Barricades around the World War II Memorial in Washington prevent people from entering the monument on October 1. The memorial was temporary opened to veteran groups who arrived on Honor Flights on a day trip to visit the nation's capital.
World War II veteran Russell Tucker of Meridian, Mississippi, stands outside the barricade as he visits the World War II Memorial in Washington on October 1.
World War II Veteran George Bloss, from Gulfport, Mississippi, looks out over the National World War II Memorial in Washington, on October 1. Veterans who had traveled from across the country were allowed to visit the National World War II Memorial after it had been officially closed because of the partial government shutdown.
A park ranger secures a road at the entrance to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial on October 1 in Keystone, South Dakota.
A sign is posted in the window of an IRS office in Brooklyn notifying that the office is closed due to the government shutdown on October 1.
A visitor takes a picture of a sign announcing the closure of the Fort Point National Historic Site due to the partial government shutdown on October 1 in San Francisco, California.
A hand-written sign informs visitors to Faneuil Hall, the nation's oldest public meeting hall, that restrooms are closed as a result of the partial government shutdown in Boston, on October 1.
Visitors to Independence National Historical Park are reflected in the window of the closed building housing the Liberty Bell, on October 1 in Philadelphia.
Mark Weekley, superintendent at the National Park Service's Lewis and Clark National Historical Trail, puts up a sign proclaiming the facility closed due to the federal government shutdown, in Omaha, Nebraska, on October 1.
Hot Springs National Park employee Stacy Jackson carries a barricade while closing Arlington Lawn in Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas on October 1.
The Washington Monument is seen behind a chain fence in Washington, on October 1.
A National Park Service ranger finishes putting up a sign indicating all facilities at the Martin Luther King Historic Site are closed to the public in Atlanta, on October 1.
A Capitol police officer walks through the empty Capitol Rotunda, closed to tours during the government shutdown on Capitol Hill in Washington, on October 1.
An employee at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site in Springfield, Massachusetts, puts up a sign on October 1, to notify visitors that the site is closed because of a government shutdown.
A U.S. Park Service police officer stands at the closed Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington on October 1.
A man looks into the closed Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington on October 1.
A National Parks Service ranger posts a sign on the doors of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on October 1 notifying visitors that the church is closed.
A U.S. park ranger places a closed sign on a barricade in front of the World War II Memorial in Washington on October 1.
Park police and Park Service employees close down the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall on October 1.
A sign informs visitors that the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial, west of Paris, is closed because of the shutdown on October 1.
A man walks past a sign noting the closure at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Valley View, Ohio, on October 1.
Members of the U.S. National Park Service close the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington on October 1.
A U.S. park ranger posts a closed sign at the Lincoln Memorial on October 1.
A sign alerting visitors that the National Gallery of Art is closed stands outside the building on October 1.
People look at a sign announcing that the Statue of Liberty is closed in New York on October 1.
Fencing around the World War II Memorial prevents people from entering the monument on the National Mall in Washington on October 1.
Signs taped on museum doors alert visitors that the National Museum of American History in Washington is closed on October 1.
A U.S. park service police officer stands guard at the entrance of the closed Lincoln Memorial on October 1.
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