President Trump announced yesterday that he’s cancelling a scheduled 2.1% pay raise for civilian federal workers in 2019 to “put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course.”
According to Trump, we can’t afford it. But this basic pay bump for federal workers—which simply allows them to keep pace with costs of living—is a tiny fraction of the $2 trillion Trump and congressional Republicans cost the country with their December tax scam.
Some other things to know:
- Giving federal civilian workers a 2% pay increase next year would cost roughly $3 billion. To put that in perspective, the new tax loophole for “passthrough” businesses like the Trump Organization will cost $47 billion in the next fiscal year. The tax cut for wealthy, multimillion-dollar estates in the Trump-Republican tax law will cost another $8 billion per year.
CNN’s Paul Begala sums it up:
“Meanwhile, the Secret Service agents who protect his life, the household staff that makes his bed, women and men who patrol the border he’s always yapping about — get shafted. Federal workers are patriotic; nearly one-third of them are veterans. Many of them do work that is difficult and dangerous — and almost all of them do work for which they are rarely thanked.”
A new poll out this morning shows Trump’s approval rating at just 36%. The American people aren’t fooled; they saw Trump and his enablers in Congress give a $2 trillion gift to the 1% (and themselves) while at the same time continuing ACA sabotage to jack up health care costs for the public.
Heading into Labor Day, a look at a few more ways the Trump administration is harming the American worker:
- Letting owners pocket workers’ tips.
For a full, up-to-date tracker of the ways the Trump administration is harmful for Aemrican workers, click here.