This is amazing:
President Donald Trump told lawmakers on Thursday he wants to scrap a pay raise for civilian federal workers, saying the nation’s budget couldn’t support it.
In a letter to House and Senate leaders, Trump described the pay increase as “inappropriate.”
“We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases,” the President wrote.
An across-the-board 2.1% pay increase for federal workers was slated to take effect in January. In addition, a yearly adjustment of paychecks based on the region of the country where a worker is posted — the “locality pay increase” — was due to take effect.
Trump said both increases should no longer happen.
Hey- they did it to themselves:
Approximate number of civilian govt. workers/voters in the following states will not get raises in 2019, because of @realDonaldTrump's decision today: #FL: 79K#GA: 72K#IA: 9K #KY: 23K#MICH: 26K#MO: 34K#NC: 44K#OH: 50K#PA: 60K#TX: 114K#VA: 136K#WV: 15K#WISC: 15K
(OPM)— West Wing Reports (@WestWingReport) August 30, 2018
That’s a lot of red states in there. Sorry folks, we tried to warn you. Guess you’ll have to wait for those tax cuts to trickle down to you:
BREAKING: New corporate profit data shows just how corrupt the Republican tax bill really was. #CultureOfCorruption pic.twitter.com/d8d0uzTXmH
— CAP Action (@CAPAction) August 29, 2018
You’re probably going to be waiting a while.
Roger Moore
Hoocoodanode?!
Mandalay
I don’t think anybody could have predicted that these people would….
debit
I really hope this gets a shitload of coverage everywhere.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Now that CAP Action graph is highly deceptive, you have to give time for things to trickle down; not just a few quarters, maybe a few years, a few decades, or a few centuries.
Booger
F*cks to give? Now where did I leave them…? Oh well.
debit
@debit: And that every senator and congressperson who voted for it has to answer for it. Part of me knows that’ll never happen, but if I was a federal employee, I would be blowing up their phone lines 24/7.
debit
I’m calling it right now: this will prove to be so gross that someone will force Trump to take it back and it will be yet another unforced error by the shitgibbon.
Mary G
One good effect:
Also, too federal employees live all over the country, not just in the DC area. Park rangers, local FBI officers, ICE thugs, all not getting raises they thought they would.
Duane
This has been another episode of “Trump’s America!” We appreciate your support!
danielx
Like Trump or the Republican congress give a fiddler’s fuck about putting the nation on a fiscally responsible course.
lollipopguild
We do live in a right-wing cartoon.
California Stars
Hey, somebody’s gotta pay for the kickbacks to the GOP’s defense contractor buddies (i.e. Space Force)
Boussinesque
@debit: I certainly hope so, but I wouldn’t count on it. Also fits perfectly with their attitude towards those who elect to serve their country by working for the government—“Gonna complain about not getting a raise? Maybe you should go out and get a real job in private industry instead of living off the government. Government should be smaller, anyway!”
I hate these people so much.
PenAndKey
Leave it to Dear Leader to think it’s a brilliant idea to balance the budget by axing a pitiful 2% Cost of Living raise. If only there was a source of funds that could have paid for it…
Seriously, for the part of “fiscal responsibility” they sure do act like a drunk scrambling to pay bills the Monday after payday, after spending all weekend at the bar.
debbie
Fucking asshole. Are his $3,000,000 rounds of golf also “inappropriate” and will they also be slashed to zero?
debbie
@debit:
I read, I think at CNN, that Congress can override this monstrosity (the ruling, not the man). Yet another reason to win in November!
California Stars
@debbie: “Are his $3,000,000 rounds of golf also “inappropriate” and will they also be slashed to zero?”
One hopes that’s the question Dem candidates will be repeatedly asking in the affected swing states.
Gvg
Does he actually have the power to decide this alone? Cause he often thinks he can just change things like treaties or foreign policy with a statement. I kind of suspect he is full of it again.
Duane
And those “locality raises?” Pretty sure that’s mostly in metropolitan areas that voted against his orangeness. Vindictive even to his detriment.
PAM Dirac
@Gvg: See Federal News Radio. It can be overridden by Congress and the Senate has already approved a 1.9% increase. I would be a little surprised if this gained much traction. Federal civilian raises have been low for years. I think there was 2 or 3 straight years of zero under Obama. Luckily I retired from federal service this year and the pension COL adjustment is pure statue, so I don’t have to deal with this.
Gemina13
You know there are hiring directors in government agencies who are ripping their hair out right now, screaming in frustration over Trump’s latest own goal. People are needed desperately, but the salaries and benefits aren’t enough to lure the talent. Trump just made that worse.
Mandalay
@Gvg:
In theory, no:
But given the lack of spine from Republicans in Congress, as a practical matter, yes.
Calouste
@Mary G: I know the shitgibbon isn’t big on history and reading and stuff, but maybe one of his staff can explain to him with pictures that a lot of coups and revolutions were started by soldiers unhappy with their pay and living conditions.
Unlikely to be a military coup in the US, but quite possible that one or two FBI folks are going to look at certain things a bit differently.
TenguPhule
@Gvg:
Unfortunately he does. By abusing yet another obscure rule of federal government for purposes it was not intended for.
TenguPhule
@Gemina13:
Feature, not a bug, if everyone is a thief then nobody is accountable.
Colleen McCusker
So…I thought there was a crisis at the borders. These federal workers include ICE and CBP and TSA?
TenguPhule
@debbie:
They have been designated “essential to national security”. //
TenguPhule
@Colleen McCusker:
Some of them.
naturally, this will be blamed on President Clinton.
TenguPhule
@PenAndKey:
You take that back right now! Drunks actually try to pay the bill, not stiff the bar with the tab and then go rob a liquor store like the GOP.
John Fremont
@Colleen McCusker: And in light of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, FEMA and the National Weather Service
Kyle
If only we had another $4 or 5 billion that wasn’t going to soy bean farmers for no damn good reason then maybe these folks would get a raise.
DCrefugee
Every dem candidate for Congress from the DC area just won…
Colleen McCusker
@John Fremont: Exactly.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Just one more reason for this federal worker to hate that asshole. I got the lack of pay raises under Obama – the economy was in the shitter when he took office and it didn’t look good to give us all raises while everyone else was seeing actual pay cuts or losing their job entirely. Guess who else is a federal employee? Mueller and his team…not sure I’d want to give them another reason to be pissed off if I were Trump.
scav
@Kyle: But there’s,that big military parade that’s needed first! (Well, plus a few personal cones of silence and repainted planes and office furniture . . . )
khead
Yeah, I’ve already seen this one on FB. I stole this next quote from a Splinter commenter:
I thought that was pretty good. Also, pretty sure the biggest yearly increases for me came during the GWB administration.
pk
Will it matter to Trump supporters who’re Federal Workers? I’m not sure. I know some Trump supporters where I work. One woman said that Trump’s tax law helped her husband’s small business and that he’d passed the savings on to his employees. This was within 2 months of the law passing. I did not believe her? They either tell outright lies or lie to themselves. I can see Trump supporting Federal workers either convincing themselves that they got a raise or telling themselves that the reason they didn’t get one was to help with the deficit, so sacrifices have to be made. Same as the soybean farmers who still support Trump despite facing losses because of dear leader’s tariffs. Why should Federal workers be different?
kd bart
As a Fed, F HIM!!! He’ll be coming for our pensions next.
smedley the uncertain
@debit: I am.
HinTN
@kd bart: Yep
catclub
@PAM Dirac:
yep. Obama was worse – so far. Just as GWBush was worse as far as dead foreigners goes.
Trump/Mulvaney’s budget plan did want to kill COLA’s for Government retirement pensions, too, also.
catclub
@kd bart: Yep.
catclub
@Kyle: The farmer tariff bailout was $14B, the pay raise for every government employee, was $25B
catclub
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Except Obama pretended to know that you have to increase spending by the government to fight the recession.
catclub
@Colleen McCusker: Trump would be happy to grant an emergency exception for ICE and CBP employees.
I would not suggest it.
catclub
@Calouste: The cut is applied to civilian feds, but military are getting a 2.6% raise.
catclub
@Mandalay:
I have hopes that they will stick a 1.9% raise that the Senate approved in the end of year omnibus spending bill.
chopper
yep. looks like i’m losing thousands of dollars next year cause of Spiteful McManbaby. wonderful.
Ella in New Mexico
“Republicans: Hatin on loyal, dedicated, patriotic Federal Employees since 1980”
Seriously sick and tired of my husband always being a bunch of lying asshole’s whipping boy after they give away the store in deficit spending and tax cuts.
Pogonip
@Calouste: He’s not objecting to the military raise, only the civilian employee raise.
chopper
i know drumpf is a stable genius and all, but i’m not sure why he wants to make a big public show over how the deficit has exploded on his watch by saying that us feds have to take a haircut over it.