For those willing to read between the lines a few months ago, it was not at all difficult to understand that Trump and the Republicans’ tax cut scam was just that, a scam. Unfortunately, President Trump is forcing federal employees to go another year without a pay raise.
Trump canceled federal employees raise
Federal employees became the new casualties of Donald Trump and the Republicans tax cut scam. Millionaires & Billionaire win while middle-class hosed.
CNN reported the following.
President Donald Trump told lawmakers on Thursday he wants to scrap a pay raise for civilian federal workers, saying the nation’s budget couldn’t support it. In a letter to House and Senate leaders, Trump described the pay increase as “inappropriate.” “We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases,” the President wrote.
An across-the-board 2.1% pay increase for federal workers was slated to take effect in January. In addition, a yearly adjustment of paychecks based on the region of the country where a worker is posted — the “locality pay increase” — was due to take effect. Trump said both increases should no longer happen. “I have determined that for 2019, both across the board pay increases and locality pay increases will be set at zero,” he wrote.
Congress has an opportunity to effectively overrule the President’s edict if lawmakers pass a spending bill that includes a federal pay raise. The Senate passed a bill this summer that included a 1.9% raise for federal workers. The House’s version did not address federal pay. Senate and House negotiators will negotiate a final measure in the coming weeks.
This attack on the middle-class is only the tip of the iceberg. As the extent of how Trump and the Republicans have decimated the federal coffers with their tax cut scam, the social safety which includes Social Security and Medicare will be gutted. It is important to note that the tax cut scam is leaving America swimming in historic deficits.
The massive tax cuts signed into law in December, which Republicans said would pay for themselves, will balloon the U.S. deficit in years ahead, the Congressional Budget Office said on Monday, possibly hobbling President Donald Trump’s future agenda. The deficit – the amount that Washington’s spending exceeds its revenues – will expand to $804 billion in fiscal 2018, which ends on Sept. 30, up from $665 billion in fiscal 2017, CBO said.
The national debt is on track to approach 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2028, said the nonpartisan CBO, which analyzes legislation for Congress. “That amount is far greater than the debt in any year since just after World War II,” CBO said, adding that the debt is now about 77 percent of GDP, a measure of the size of the economy. The Republican tax legislation, passed by Congress without Democratic support, along with a recent bipartisan $1.3 trillion spending package, are expected to drive economic growth faster than initially expected, CBO said.
We are in for a fiscal crisis if the damage Trump and his administration are imposing on America isn’t mitigated soon. Vote your interest and America’s in 2018.