This article was first published in Liberal America and Liberal Nation Rising under the title "VP Pence, Senior Cabinet Officials Get A Raise During Gov't. Shutdown".
800,000 Americans currently have no idea when they are going to see their next paychecks while Vice President Mike Pence, the president's cabinet, and senior administration officials are receiving $10,000 raises.
Donald Trump's border wall government shutdown has now surpassed the two-week mark.
Just before the new year--amid the shutdown--the president decided to order a freeze on federal employees' salaries.
This past Friday, Trump threatened to drag the shutdown out for "months or years" as long as lawmakers refuse to give him five billion dollars of taxpayer money for a wall along the southern US border with Mexico.
But again, Vice President Mike Pence, the president's cabinet, and senior administration officials are receiving $10,000 raises.
Why?
Ironically, because of the shutdown.
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan refused to present to the House of Representatives funding bills for the affected multiple agencies. In these bills were pay freezes first enacted in 2013, renewed every year. Since the bills never made it to the House floor, the pay freezes expired.
Moreover, not only will Pence et al. get raises; they will get five years' worth starting next week.
Had the dead-on-arrival bills been passed, cabinet secretaries, for example, would have seen an annual salary bump from $199,700 to $210,700; deputy secretaries, from $179,700 to $189,600.
VP Pence, however, will go from $230,700 to $243,500.
Meanwhile, in and around America's national parks garbage is piling up.
ATV riders off-road illegally.
Restrooms are going unattended.
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