Trump orders freeze in federal salaries as shutdown reaches ten days

 

Trump orders freeze in federal salaries as shutdown reaches ten days

By
Patrick Martin

31 December 2018

The partial shutdown of the US federal government entered its tenth day Monday with no negotiations taking place between congressional Democrats and the Trump administration. There are no indications of any change in the stalemate until Thursday at the earliest. On that day the newly elected House of Representatives with a Democratic majority takes office.

Trump spent the weekend issuing a stream of abusive tweets, blasting the Democrats for a shutdown that he had previously boasted of wanting and taking responsibility for. He combined his insults toward his political opponents within the ruling elite with real injury towards federal workers, signing an executive order to freeze the pay of all two million civilian workers for the US government for the rest of the fiscal year.

The executive order demonstrates Trump’s real attitude to the working class, behind the political demagogy and claims that he is waging trade war to defend American jobs and American workers. While the military will receive an across-the-board increase of 2.6 percent, because the defense appropriations bill was passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump, no pay increase for civilian workers has been finalized.

The Senate passed an increase averaging just under 2 percent, but the outgoing Republican-controlled House never enacted a pay raise, tacitly honoring Trump’s call for a civilian freeze in the budget he submitted to Congress last February. The executive order Trump signed Friday restates the proposed freeze, although it could be overturned in whatever legislation is eventually enacted to end the budget stalemate.

For the 800,000 federal employees affected by the shutdown, the pay…

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