The U.S. Senate voted to award a $174,000 tax-free "death gratuity" to the widow of New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, who was one of the richest members of Congress.

Thanks to the "Obama/Reid 'no negotiation' government shutdown," we all learned that widowed spouses of our service members killed in action receive a "death gratuity" of just $100,000.

We now know that the life of an elderly member of the U.S. Senate is worth exactly $74,000 more than the life of a U.S. serviceman killed in Afghanistan or Iraq.

While the senators no doubt think their gift to Lautenberg's widow was simply a gesture of kindness, this highlights how foreign the thinking and values of Washington's political class are to the country class (i.e., the rest of us): they think the life of an elderly politician is worth almost twice as much as a fallen hero, killed in the prime of his or her life.  

Remember: it was only "Tea Party" senators -- Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, reviled by members of their own Senate Republican Caucus -- who showed up at the WWII Memorial during the government shutdown, ministering to and encouraging vets who were prisoners of the Obama/Reid war against veterans.  

It's a shame every Republican U.S. senator wasn't at the WWII Memorial, standing shoulder to shoulder with Cruz and Lee.  It's a shame, but not surprising.

With unthinking acts like these, our senators indict themselves, exposing their Washington-centric hearts and minds.