Trump and his White House are extremely out of touch with the workers whose paychecks they are holding hostage.
Wilbur Ross said he doesn’t “really quite understand” why workers are needing to go to food banks during the Trump Shutdown.
Wilbur Ross: “I know there are and I don’t really quite understand why. Because as I mentioned before, the obligations that they would undertake, say borrowing from a bank or a credit union, are in effect federally guaranteed.”
Wilbur Ross suggested it wouldn’t be a big deal if 800,000 workers never got their paychecks because the GDP impact was not a “gigantic number overall.”
Wilbur Ross: “You’re talking about 800,000 workers. And while I feel sorry for the individuals that have hardship cases, 800,000 workers, if they never got their pay – which is not the case, they will eventually get it – but if they never got it, you’re talking about a third of a percent on our GDP. So it’s not like it’s a gigantic number overall.”
Wilbur Ross put the blame of safety concerns on air traffic controllers who are calling in sick after weeks without a paycheck.
Wilbur Ross: “Well, I do worry about safety and it’s kind of disappointing that the air traffic controllers are calling in sick in pretty large numbers.”
Lara Trump wrote off the struggles of federal workers, saying it’s just “a little bit of pain… for the future of the country.”
Lara Trump:“Trump made the remarks after BOLD TV host Carrie Sheffield asked her ‘in terms of the workers who are coming to work and not getting paid, what would you say to them?’ ‘Listen this is, it’s not fair to you and we all get that but this is so much bigger than any one person,’ Trump responded. ‘It is a little bit of pain but it’s going to be for the future of our country and their children and their grandchildren and generations after them will thank them for their sacrifice,’ she said.”
Larry Kudlow contradicted the warnings of most economists, and said the economy would recover immediately after the shutdown ends.
Larry Kudlow: “Kudlow says: ‘This stuff going on now is temporary’ and is predicting, ‘the recovery will be almost immediate.’”
Larry Kudlow: “Kudlow acknowledged that there are ‘hardships’ for federal workers and others affected by the shutdown, which is now in its second month, but said that ‘resources will come back, I mean literally, the day of’ the shutdown’s end. ‘We’ve seen this before. There will be snapback. Immediately. That’s my sense,’ he said.”
Politico: “The partial government shutdown was supposed to be a brief non-event for the economy. Now it’s starting to look like a serious crisis that could nudge the U.S. toward recession and threaten President Donald Trump's economic message during his reelection campaign.”
Associated Press: “Yet some independent economists doubt that the rebound would be enough to offset the initial damage. The economy is already bedeviled by slowing global growth, ongoing trade tensions and higher interest rates, which contributed to a plunge in home sales last month.”
Trump claimed that “a lot of” workers said “we don’t care” about not getting paychecks.
Trump: “Well, that might happen. But I want to give them a chance to see if they can act responsibly. They should act responsibly. We're talking about the border, and I have to say a lot of the people that aren't getting their checks are letting us know we don't care, you've got to solve the crisis at the border. It's humanitarian crisis, and it's national security. It's very important.”