White House vows to ‘ride out’ shutdown, continue layoffs

The White House budget office vowed to continue laying off government agency workers, but pay military members and federal law enforcement as the US shutdown entered into its 14th day with no resolution in sight.

“OMB is making every preparation to batten down the hatches and ride out the Democrats’ intransigence,” the Office of Management and Budget posted on social media on Tuesday. “Pay the troops, pay law enforcement, continue the RIFs, and wait.”

The White House budget office issued a first round of reductions in force, or RIFs, on Friday, terminating more than 4,000 federal workers, escalating the standoff with Democrats.

Those layoffs marked the first large-scale ouster of federal employees during a funding lapse in modern history, going beyond the furloughs that have characterized past shutdowns. Republicans claim the terminations are necessary consequence of the shutdown, an assertion Democrats and federal budget experts have disputed.

The terminations aren’t needed to conserve cash during a shutdown since the government hasn’t typically paid workers during prior shutdowns.

President Donald Trump directed the Defense Department to deliver paychecks to US troops on Wednesday despite the ongoing shutdown, removing a potential pressure point to resolve the congressional impasse. The OMB social media post suggested the president would also pay federal law enforcement, further easing the pain of a shutdown.

Other federal workers are largely going unpaid while the shutdown drags on.

Republican Representative Jason Smith on Tuesday said the shutdown “empowers” the administration and the president.

“He has a lot of extra levers to do things necessary to try to make pressure points not nearly as bad, and that’s exactly what President Trump is doing,” Smith, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, told Fox Business.

The economic strain of the shutdown is escalating as it drags on. More than a quarter of a million federal employees missed scheduled paychecks in recent days and another 2 million are expected to go without pay this week.

Democrats and Republicans have made virtually no progress on resolving the shutdown, and they remain far apart on whether to renew the health care subsidies at the heart of the fight. Democrats want to extend expiring tax credits that lower health care premiums for more than 22 million people, according to the health research foundation KFF.

Republicans say they won’t negotiate until the Democrats vote to reopen the government. GOP congressional leaders have disparaged the subsidies, with House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday blasting Obamacare as “sinister.”