JD Vance warns of ‘deeper’ cuts for federal workers amid shutdown

Vice President JD Vance said Sunday there would be deeper reductions in the federal workforce as time goes on. government shutdown continues, adding to the uncertainty facing hundreds of thousands of people already thrown out of work without pay amid continued gridlock in Congress.

Vance warned that as the federal shutdown entered its 12th day, the new cuts would be “painful,” although he said the Trump administration worked to ensure that the military is paid this week and that some services would be preserved for low-income Americans, including food aid.

However, hundreds of thousands of civil servants have been made unemployed in recent days and, in a context court filing On Friday, the Office of Management and Budget announced that more than 4,000 federal employees would soon be laid off due to the shutdown. The effects of the shutdown also grew on Sunday when the Smithsonian announced that its museums, research centers and the National Zoo would be temporarily closed due to lack of funding.

“The longer this goes on, the deeper the cuts will be,” Vance said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “To be clear, some of these cuts are going to be painful. It’s not a situation we relish. It’s not something we look forward to, but the Democrats have dealt us a pretty tough deck of cards.”

Unions have already filed a lawsuit to stop the president’s aggressive decision Donald Trump of the budget, which goes well beyond what usually happens in a government shutdownfurther fueling tensions between the Republicans who control Congress and the Democratic minority.

The shutdown began Oct. 1 after Democrats rejected a short-term funding solution and demanded that the bill include an expansion of federal health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. The expiration of these grants at the end of the year will result in millions of dollars in monthly cost increases.

Trump and Republican leaders have said they are open to negotiations on health care subsidies, but insist the government must first reopen.

For the moment, negotiations are almost non-existent. Entrenched as ever, House leaders from both parties pointed fingers at each other during their rival appearances Sunday on “Fox News Sunday.”

“We have made it clear repeatedly that we will sit down with anyone, anytime, anywhere,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. “Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency. It’s unfortunate that they took a do-it-yourself approach.”

President of the House Mike Johnson blamed Democrats and said they “don’t seem to care” about the pain the shutdown inflicts.

“They are doing their best to distract the American people from the simple fact that they have chosen a partisan fight in order to prove to their rising Marxist base in the Democratic Party that they are ready to fight Trump and the Republicans,” he said.

Progressive activists, meanwhile, expressed new support for the Democratic Party’s position in the fight against the shutdown.

Ezra Levinco-founder of the leading progressive protest group Indivisible, said he “feels good about the strength of the Democrats’ position.” He highlighted the divides within the GOP, noting that Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene She publicly warned last week that health insurance premiums would skyrocket for the average American — including their own adult children — if nothing was done.

“Trump and the Republican Party rightly take responsibility for the shutdown and impending premium increases,” Levin said. “Their chickens come back to roost. »

And yet the Republican administration and its congressional allies show no signs of giving in to Democratic demands or backing down from their threats to use the opportunity to make deeper federal workforce reductions.

Thousands of employees at the Departments of Education, Treasury, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and the Environmental Protection Agency are expected to receive layoff notices, according to agency spokespeople and federal workers’ union representatives.

“You hear a lot of Democratic senators say: How can Donald Trump fire all these federal employees? Vance said. “Well, the Democrats gave us a choice between, on the one hand, giving low-income women their food benefits and paying our troops, and, on the other hand, paying the federal bureaucrats.”

Democrats say these layoffs are illegal and unnecessary.

“They don’t have to do this,” Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “They don’t have to punish people who shouldn’t be in this situation.”