Opinion: Trump’s senior staff get raises while 800,000 go unpaid

NOTICE: The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of LA Mundi News.

After the government shut down, and approximately 800,000 federal workers are forced to take a mandatory, unpaid leave of absence, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence plan to give raises to senior officials of the administration. Most officials will get $10,000 dollar raises.

Among the officials getting raises is Vice President Pence, along with Cabinet secretaries and their deputies.

Of the 800,000, 380,000 have been furloughed and the rest are forced to work without pay. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Maryland) put out a statement calling the raises ”outrageous” and urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConell (R-Kentucky) to allow the Senate to vote on the House’s measure that would reopen the government and freeze pay for the officials getting the raise. The Majority Leader has a vested interest in the measure, since more than 62,000 federal employees are in his district.

The shutdown has infuriated labor unions representing federal workers, while the chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, Representative Nita M. Lowey (D-New York), called the pay raises ”outrageous”.

Of course, the Trump administration has yet to comment on the raises. Their actions have started to become representative of the Trump administration: the rich will get richer and the poor will just have to wait.