As the economic fallout from the COVID-19 coronavirus continues to weigh on the country, one group thinks that federal employees have not had to endure the same financial pain as the rest of the country and is calling for a 20% pay cut for all federal workers as well as Members of Congress.
Tea Party Patriots Action recently began circulating a petition calling for the pay cut until a vaccine is developed.
As to their reasoning why they think federal employees and Members of Congress should take the temporary pay cut, the petition states:
The economic carnage we have imposed on ourselves is unprecedented: More than thirty million Americans have lost their jobs, and that number grows by the millions every week. It is almost as if the federal government demands ransom (or is it tribute?) from the American people – lost jobs, lost wages, lost dreams, and multiple trillions of dollars in debt that will need to be paid back, all piled on the altar of ensuring that not a single life is lost to COVID-19. Sadly, the DC politicians and bureaucrats who created this carnage have no interest in sharing those burdens. They go on with their lives. In fact, their lives are now made easier than ever – now, in the name of “social distancing,” they can do their jobs sitting at home, never missing a paycheck. They don’t have to put up with the DC Metro (conveniently shut down), and their orders have virtually shuttered Uber and Lyft, so why bother going to an office?
Why 20%? The petition says that this figure represents a “one percent cut for every million Americans who lost their jobs in April.”
The petition notes, however, that a pay cut cannot just arbitrarily be placed upon the federal workforce and would require legislation to enact it. “Therefore, TPP Action is sending a petition to President Trump urging him to announce his support for such legislation, and asking him to work with Congress to pass it,” reads the petition.
The petition concludes by saying that staying inside under a lockdown is “neither a logical nor a safe approach” and that more practical methods and precautions such as practicing good hygiene makes more sense.
“If the DC politicians and bureaucrats were forced to live life the same way they now demand that American citizens live theirs, they wouldn’t demand those changes in the first place!,” writes Tea Party Patriots Action in the petition.
Individuals who agree with the group’s petition can sign it to show their support, however, it seems doubtful that Congress will be uniting to vote to cut their own pay anytime soon.
