Trump Is Nixing Pre-Scheduled Raises for Federal Workers (Happy Labor Day)
In short, because he can
As Trump continues to feel the heat from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, he’s taken refuge in touting America’s booming economy. “Consumer Confidence Index, just out, is the HIGHEST IN 18 YEARS!” the president tweeted on Wednesday. “Also, GDP revised upward to 4.2 from 4.1. Our country is doing great!” The economy is doing so great, in fact, that the president on Thursday announced he plans to cancel pre-scheduled raises for federal employees in order save American from financial ruin. Funny how that works.
In a letter addressed to Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Trump cited a state of “national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare” to explain why the 2.1 percent pay increase scheduled to take effect in January is “inappropriate.” Trump also nixed a scheduled “locality pay increase,” a yearly paycheck adjustment based on where in America a federal employee is based. “I have determined that for 2019, both across the board pay increases and locality pay increases will be set at zero,” the president wrote.
The two million federal workers who would be affected can still get their raises if Congress passes a spending bill that includes them. The Senate recently passed a bill that features a 1.9 percent pay increase, but the House of Representatives has yet to address the issue of a raise for federal workers. “This pay raise is important to keep federal pay from falling even farther behind that of the private sector,” the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association said in a statement released after the Senate’s bill passed in August. “Now more than ever, competitive federal salaries are sorely needed to confront hiring needs as 40 percent of the current workforce is eligible to retire in the next three years.”
The letter issued Thursday is far from the first time Trump has tried to screw over government workers. The 2019 budget proposal he sent to Congress in February included a pay freeze for civilian federal workers, and in May he signed three executive orders aimed at curtailing the power of federal unions. Last week, a federal judge struck down many of the key provisions in those orders. “We are very pleased that the court agreed that the president far exceeded his authority, and that the apolitical career federal work force shall be protected from these illegal, politically motivated executive orders,” Federal Workers Alliance co-chair Sarah Suszczyk said in a statement.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-raises-federal-workers-717911/
Gotta pay for them tax cuts somehow though I think a pay freeze is one of the least likely ways to accomplish such.
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