The Trump administration has put out signals that it might not be obliged to pay all of the federal workers who were showing up during the shutdown.
It’s understood that when there is a shutdown, the workers will have their paychecks frozen, but will eventually get paid retroactively once the shutdown ends.
But Trump is suggesting setting a precedent by possibly not paying these workers at all. This is both cruel and dangerous.
You can either tell a person to stay home and not pay them, or make them go to work and pay them down the road. But this is not a slave nation where we make people go to work and then refuse to pay them.
More importantly, this foolish comment that he may withhold payments incentivizes these federal workers to stay home. It’s time to clarify this message once and for all and let workers know that, if they show up to work, they will eventually get paid.
Stop the nonsense.