TJ Walker on federal workers missing paychecks during a shutdown while the White House renovates the Lincoln Bedroom. Food banks are overwhelmed with workers seeking aid. Republicans could end it by changing filibuster rules to pass funding with a simple majority.
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Paychecks on hold but marble on display. Federal workers in the United States have now missed two paychecks and the human toll is getting wrong. One government publishing office staffer says she's barely eaten after selling possessions and losing her car to repossession. While she keeps working without a paycheck. Judges have ordered partial snap. That's the food stamps and Head Start payments meant for November 1. But the timing is still unclear, leaving families unsure how to buy food. A nonprofit that helps federal employees says it received over 10,000 micro grant requests and hit its $1 million limit. The average salary of recipients is just over $50,000. People living paycheck to paycheck. Now the split screen. The White House unveiled a Lincoln bathroom redo with statuary, marble and gold accents put posting two dozen after photos and offering no cost. And when I say the White House I do mean the big guy. One American lines up at food banks, the other post bathroom glam shots. This is sort of bizarre optic situation. So what's the real message here? Federal government workers, some of them are going hungry. They're literally going hungry. Their cars are being repossessed. What, what's the message from the White House? Look at all the marble and gold we've now put in to the Lincoln Bedroom. This is just bizarre. This is Versailles cosplay. The President has not only been talking about the Lincoln Bedroom, but of course the big ballroom that's going to hold 90,000 square feet and dwarf the White House somehow. There's money for all of that and yet we can't pay workers, we can't pay for food for needy children in the country. Let's look at some more of the facts going on here and what's going on. So this is reported by the Times and the Washington Post and a lot of other places. This is not something made up. Actual federal government employees are now going without pay for two different pay periods more than a month. And I certainly remember for most well the first half of my working life I was paycheck to paycheck. I well remember when I worked for the federal government as an aide members of Congress more than 30 years ago ago I didn't have more than probably a couple hundred bucks in my checking account and I had no savings. So if I had gone without a paycheck I would have been showing up on friends doorsteps. Those, those are tough things to ask for. Now it's one thing if a lowly congressional assistant writing press releases doesn't get paid, but we're talking about people in charge of your life. People who are air traffic controllers who. I don't want my air traffic controller hungry. I don't want him to have a head or her to have a headache. And slightly nauseous and lightheaded, unable to think clearly because they didn't eat breakfast because they don't have food. And they're trying to figure out is it okay for my plane to land when there's another plane taken off. I don't want that. That sounds dangerous. I'm getting nervous, frankly, about my own upcoming flights later this month for the Thanksgiving vacation, hoping to go to North Carolina, to Charlotte to be family. But I'm not sure I'm going to feel very comfortable putting my family on a plane where the people in charge of our lives at that point will not have been paid for almost two months. It's just human nature. If you're worried about finding food right now, why are you going to be worried about protecting other people's lives? Especially if it's people like Congresswoman Mace yelling at you and telling you to go F yourself, as she is reported to have done recently. So what's going to happen to this government? Shut. How does it ever end? One of the things that President Trump tried, which I endorsed. Yes. Was to simply say, okay, enough with the whole filibuster rule. Let's not forget it is entirely within the power of the Republican Party to open the government. Now. They do not technically need a single vote from any Democrat. That's simply a traditional where senators have said okay in order to give the minority side more power. It's going to take 60 votes to get something passed. Not a majority, but that's just a rule the senators cooked up to get themselves a little more power. There's nothing in the Constitution that says pass any legislation. You need 60 votes. So the president, I would say to his credit, because it's not an authoritarian power grab, it's perfectly acceptable and legitimate to end the filibuster. There are reasons against it, but not on constitutional grounds. And Senator John Thune, the Republican leader who normally does anything this president asked for, said, nope, not going to do it. So this is going to be the interesting clash in the next week that may dominate the news in a fascinating way, because if President Trump puts enough pressure on Senator Thune, he may buckle, in which case the Republicans can simply change the rules of the Congress in about the Senate in two seconds. They can simply cast a vote and say, henceforth, in order for any legislation to pass, it requires a simple majority And a majority vote can pass that. And then the second order of business can be, we now vote to extend funding in accordance with the president's wishes in the big ugly bill. And 20 million people don't get their medical care or they see their medical care cost double in the next month. Democrats can stick it. We don't care. We get what we want. We have a majority. And democracy is supposed to be about majority rules. So that clearly could happen. Right now, Senator Thune doesn't want to give up the power because he's thinking, at some point, Trump's not going to be in the White House. At some point, a Democrat could be in the White House. Democrats could have 53 senators, Republicans are going to be in the minority, and we want the power to stop stuff. So it's understandable. Politicians like power. I'm not saying it's inherently bad, but what I'm fascinated by is this upcoming potential battle between Senator Thune and Donald Trump, because Trump, he's not one into tradition and niceties, and this whole filibuster thing is kind of just tradition nicety. If Trump wants the government open, he could force the senators, I believe, to just go ahead and open it without any compromise, without meeting with the Democrats. If he doesn't want to meet with the Democrats, he doesn't have to.
