On Wednesday President Trump tweeted a Daily Caller article which read, in part, “We do not want most employees to return, because we are working better without them.”
The senior administration made the case that Trump should extend the shutdown deliberately in order to reduce the federal workforce, writing of federal workers, “80 percent feel no pressure to produce results. If they don’t feel like doing what they are told, they don’t.”
The article went on, “Furloughed employees should find other work, never return and not be paid.”
President Trump’s apparent support for the argument indicates the border wall is not the only motive behind the shutdown. Instead, the administration may be seeking to fundamentally alter the regulatory capacity of the federal government by forcing hardship on workers until they quit, perhaps never to be replaced.
Image via Wikimedia
NYC Federal Workers United 