Let’s be clear, Democrats aren’t “shutting down the government”; Congress is shutting down government by not doing its job of coming to a consensus to pass a budget. Republicans are primarily responsible for this through their utter refusal to consider, negotiate, or concede anything to come to an acceptable compromise that would get the required number of votes to pass a reconciliation bill (which itself is an end run around how the ‘normal’ budget approval process is intended to work).
I am genuinely sorry that you and your wife have been furloughed. It is unfair and a complete debasement of the responsibility of Congress collectively to just do their jobs, something that it fails at on a progressively frequent basis. If you want to direct your anger a Democrats then that is your right. But understand that what you are really demanding is that—in abeyance of all democratic normst—Democrats lie down and agree to whatever MAGA-compliant Republican Congresspeople want without getting anything in return, without making the slightest effort to protect tens of millions of people who will lose critical health care coverage at a time when they are already under economic attack by this administration, and basically allowing this regime to continue unfettered in a fast slide into authoritarianism.
I know that standing up against that doesn’t put money in your checking account or food on your table. But it isn’t as if Democrats were to accede now there would be good faith negotiations later, in November or at any other time in the future. You have the right to bemoan being sent home now because of the shutdown, but when this regime shutters agencies and sends many hundreds of thousands of government workers (and millions more contractors) into unemployment, crashes the economy, and basically makes health care unaffordable for all but the super-wealthy while everyone else is mortgages to the hilt for any emergency or critical care, are you going to be better off?
Republicans have responsibility, too ( even though they dodge it like jackrabbits all while blustering about the importance of ‘personal responsibility’), and in this particular case they have a responsibility to sit down at a table and negotiate the very reasonable demands of Democrats to provide the necessary support so as not to deprive tens of millions of Americans access to basic health care while they are busy carving out massive tax breaks for billionaires, and o- by-the-way lying their fucking asses off about how illegal immigrants are getting free health care and other benefits from the federal government. When there is a group of people lying that hard to cover their shame, it should be pretty obvious who the responsible party is.
Count yourself lucky to live in a sane country governed by at least marginally responsible people who do the basic job that is expected of them. Just getting our legislators (of either party) to actually show up and do their fucking jobs is like herding kindergarteners at a petting zoo.
I know one thing. If they cut healthcare subs the Republicans are gonna have it tough running up to November. Town halls will be free for alls, if they dare to have them at all.
Personally affected…I am supposed to get on a plane later this month to go to another state and give a presentation. I am going to cancel that ticket, rent a car and drive. Not really thrilled to take an extra day to travel each way but not willing to roll the air-traffic controller dice either.
I have a daughter on Medicaid trying to get disability for severe mental health issues. She hasn’t worked in two years and we are almost fully supporting her. If they gut Medicaid as they are trying to, I expect she will lose her insurance and health care for her will be beyond her and our means.
My company recently changed our rate of pay and how it is figured. Part of this change included uncompensated work – essentially working off the clock. This is in violation of Federal wage and hour laws. Prior to the shutdown, I had contacted an investigator with the US Department of Labor who was interested in helping me get this problem corrected. Now that the shutdown has set in, there is no help.
Our younger son works for the Forest Service. He’s got savings, so delayed pay is no issue. And, after being furloughed for a few days, he has been called back to work. But for days he does not work, this will be an effect:
It is similar to the claim that the Fourteenth Amendment, which by original intent would have stopped Trump 47, isn’t self-executing because it mentions that congress could pass additional legislation. Conservatives no longer care about the original intent.
P.S. I am a retired federal employee and was impacted by past shutdowns. At least once I was essential and my boss was not – all to the good there.
While federal workers — as well as service members of the military — have often missed paychecks during past shutdowns, they are almost always reimbursed once the government reopens.
“That should turn up the urgency and the necessity of the Democrats doing the right thing here,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a press conference at the Capitol.
Johnson, a lawyer, said he hadn’t fully read the memo but “there are some legal analysts who are saying” that it may not be necessary or appropriate to repay the federal workers.
Yeah, it’s really those evil Democrats putting the screws to federal workers, isn’t it?
Yeah - in the area of “minor” inconveniences, I’m expecting a partial paycheck this week, and then - who knows when I’ll get paid after that? I’ll get paid eventually, but such delays could cause challenges for folk with insufficient savings. They give these ineffectual letters you can offer to your creditors. Shitty to put the employees in such position.
Withholding back pay is illegal per a law signed by Trump himseld in 2019. Should he try it, and I’ve no doubt he will, there will be lawsuits immediately.
It really is surreal, reading/hearing all about this “shutdown”, while I’m preparing for a full day of work. Absolutely zero sign of any change, let alone shut- or even slow-down in my shop. The only apparent change is that this pay period I’m only going to get paid for 7 days instead of 10, and future weeks I guess I’m giving the government an interest-free loan.
If they aren’t gonna shut the damned thing down, I wish they would call it something other than a shutdown.
At my job, we were waiting for IRS guidence on the OBBB impacts to tips and overtime tax calculations so we can update the software. That was supposed to be released on Oct 2, but is delayed now so our schedules are all impacted. We’re flying next week so TSA may be down on staffing and slower.
I have relatives and friends who are not working right now, but I’ve never worked for the government myself.
I currently live in PA and work for county government.
PA is experiencing a budget impasse.
So I am doubly screwed with both state and federal gridlock.
I have never been significantly impacted by a shutdown in the past but I am not certain I can avoid some kind of upheaval this time.
Each employee of the United States Government or of a District of Columbia public employer furloughed as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations […snip language about exempted employees…]
Trump is now arguing that he can ignore the law that he signed, but furloughed employees get back pay by law
Yeah - it is one of those stupid things where the govt is so nonsensical and convoluted that I personally don’t even try to figure out the specifics - even tho it basically funds my existence. My assumption is that even folk who are furloughed - instructed NOT to work - eventually get paid. Yet another one of those stupid aspects of the shutdown not being a shutdown, and just being a wasteful exercise in COngress not doing their jobs.
Related: I took a day and a half off last week. I intended to take annual leave (vacation), but was told I ought to instead request to be placed on furlough for that time, because I will eventually get paid for that time anyway, and will still retain that leave to use later.
1.5 days of leave/pay isn’t going to make or break me. And I’m not gonna make a big effort to try to nail something down. Often it is nigh impossible to get a clear interpretation of some byzantine policy. And my past experience is that even when you go through that effort, things can get changed at the last minute anyway.
Kind of, in that I was a federal government brat, and based on this Wikipedia page it looks like my father would have been furloughed several times when I was a kid, although the only one I have any distinct memory of was the 1990 one. None of them went on for more than a few days, though, and my parents were not the type to live from paycheck to paycheck, so I wouldn’t say I was directly affected.
Yes, and lower court judges – even Republicans – will then rule against the administration.
But SCOTUS Republicans seems to look at things differently. IMHO, if the case gets to them, GOP justices will buy the claim that the 'Government Employee Fair Treatment Act is not self-executing.
Maybe federal employees will get all their furlough pay this time – not because of the courts, but because Trump doesn’t actually care about reducing overall federal spending.
If not, it will be a test of how far SCOTUS is beholden to Trump.