"The White House budget office is instructing federal agencies to prepare reduction-in-force plans for mass firings during a possible government shutdown, specifically targeting employees who work for programs that are not legally required to continue," writes Politico’s Sophia Cai.
As with everything else where Mr. Trump is concerned, this is not your father’s government shutdown threat.
The Office of Management and Budget move to permanently reduce the government workforce if there is a shutdown, outlined in a memo shared with POLITICO ahead of release to agencies tonight, escalates the stakes of a potential shutdown next week.
That gives them a bit over four days to work this out.
In the memo, OMB told agencies to identify programs, projects and activities where discretionary funding will lapse Oct. 1 and no alternative funding source is available. For those areas, OMB directed agencies to begin drafting RIF plans that would go beyond standard furloughs, permanently eliminating jobs in programs not consistent with President Donald Trump’s priorities in the event of a shutdown.
Perhaps the most comical response from the Democrats, so far, is that of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. On the occasion of the previous shutdown attempt, he moved against it, justifying his action by saying such a development would allow Trump to remove more government workers than he would otherwise be able to do. He’s got the same situation this time, except now, he’s all in on the shutdown. At least, for the moment.
Politically speaking, Schumer's got to satisfy his party by making the right noises. When it comes down to it, though, he is cornered, and knows it. He knows that in the event of a shutdown, the White House will have more power to decide what government programs to cut — certainly more than what we’ve seen in previous shutdowns. The Democrats will not like the result of that power on two fronts: shrinking the government is never popular on the left, and they’ll also hate Trump winning again.
Keep in mind, Social Security, Border Security, Air Traffic Control, Law Enforcement, and other essential services will remain active, no matter what happens. We’re not going to see ads by the Democrats with the images of Grandma in her wheelchair being pushed off the cliff.
The memo from OMB is a brilliant response to the Democrats' gamesmanship. What we have here essentially is a stare-down contest. Last time we saw this, Schumer blinked. With the increasingly loud screaming coming from his side of the aisle, it’ll be interesting over the next few days to see this play out. Whatever the Democrats do in the next few days, I am guessing that the past is prologue, and that they will decide against swallowing what they consider a poison pill, specifically, Trump winning again.
Related: Trump’s Latest Move to Prevent a Shutdown Is Brilliant
This fight is connected, like it or not, to the mid-term elections. The thing is, no matter which way this goes, Trump wins, and I have to wonder if Schumer has this figured out. At the moment, at least, he’s not acting like it. It’s an open question as to how long he waits to blink.
It all comes down to this: Either a shutdown is avoided with the clean CR the White House is demanding be passed, or Trump starts weeding out government spending incidental to an unpopular shutdown brought about by Democrats — Democrats who really don’t need more negatives than they already have, going into the mid-term elections. Either way, Trump wins.
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