A shutdown that would halt pay for military families and government workers comes at a particularly precarious time for many households that are already struggling financially.
With six kids under the age of 15 to support, Stephen Booth, a police officer for the Air Force in Kansas, doesn’t have room in his budget for a missed paycheck.
But like millions of other government employees across the country, Booth is bracing for his pay to stop indefinitely at the end of the month as Congress careers toward a government shutdown.
House Republicans left Thursday unable to reach a compromise within their ranks over a new budget, including funds for the Defense Department, with a handful of conservative holdouts demanding additional spending cuts. Unless Congress acts, the federal government will not be able to pay its 4 million employees after Sept. 30.
The best part is congress will keep getting paid. So, no skin off their back shutting down the government.
Everything the government can’t agree on laying its bills we should fire them all and elect an entirely new congress. It’s completely unacceptable to be doing this every few years.
It’s even more fucked then that - none of the shitheads that are doing this actually urgently need their paycheck from their job.
The crazies that are causing this are all rich enough that they’d be fine if they got paid later once the shutdown is over. They don’t know the concept of living paycheck to paycheck, they’ve always had a pool of money in reserve.
Most do not make the majority of their money from their government paycheck. Wild how they can get elected and suddenly make millions.
Yeah, it’s super scummy that people can do that. Happens to a good portion of congress people. A lot of insider trading going on too.
The need to pass the MCCARTHYS Act
Aka My Constituents Cannot Afford Rebellious Tantrum, Handle Your Shutdown Act,
Which would halt congressional pay during shutdown.
They should lose 1 paycheck for each day that the government is shutdown.
Conservatives don’t want to pay federal workers anyway, they have stated they want to fire them all and end all regulation of businesses.
In Australia the Governor General would call a double dissolution of parliament where they all get fired and we have another election.
Looks like they need unions and contracts.
Not an option for many federal workers.
Unions “weren’t an option” for many people until they fought to make it an option.
Right when they can afford it most!
Must be the last quarter of the year.
Every one of those workers makes at least twice what I do working far less hard. I think I’ll sleep fine knowing this.
You’ve fallen hook, line, and sinker for the conservative propaganda that all government workers are lazy. That’s one excuse they promote to de-fund programs and entire departments so they can siphon the money off to private contractors to do the same work at double the rate.
WTF are you talking about? I’m working twice as hard as any government employee and getting nearly minimum wage. Fuck off.
Doubt.
Not really true… the current issue is that contractors are paying damn near double for fed employees. Retention is a hugh deal in the gov.
No, go the fuck on and tell me what parts not true.
Federal employees are very underpaid for their positions and skill sets as compared to those who are employed privately. Everyone I know who works in the government are literally living paycheck to paycheck, but stay because of the job security. Federal employees arent the problem to say “fuck them” its those with bloated wallets who run the government that are the problem.
So, no, you have no basis whatsoever to say I’m wrong, cool.
So basically you have no idea what goes on in the government, but think that feds do nothing all day because someone said all feds are lazy? Its not the feds fault that you have a dead end job making minimum wage…
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Again you obviously dont know what goes on in the gov. I know people who work 16 hour days 5 days week and still cant put food on the table because of the poor pay. On a side note, do you need a hug?
Only a very limited set of the DoD shuts down when Congress doesn’t pass a budget. Efforts related to national security (which most of DoD falls under) continue regardless. A “police officer for the Air Force in Kansas” has little to worry about, even if he’s a contractor. National security functions continue when the government shuts down.
Also past shutdowns didn’t represent a “missed paycheck” for those affected, but rather a delayed one. Everyone got back-pay when past shutdowns ended. This isn’t a guarantee - Congress has to pass it as part of the spending bills - but it has always happened.
Millions of federal civilians and contractors will be furloughed during a shutdown, and that’s a very bad thing. But the military angle in this article is just plain false.
Those military people are expected to keep working, but they do not get a paycheck for that work. They’re still expected to commute to work every day, but with no money to do it.
Civilian employees will get it all paid back (so it’s basically an extra paid vacation for them). With what most of them make (that I interact with), if they can’t take responsibility for simple budgeting for a couple of weeks - that’s their own shitty fault.
Should Congress not put us in this situation - absolutely! They need to loose all their pay (i.e. no later payback) for at least twice as long as the shutdown is. I know, won’t matter to the vast majority of them.
