{"id":134503,"date":"2017-09-01T08:53:59","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T14:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=134503"},"modified":"2017-09-01T15:38:24","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T21:38:24","slug":"so-were-in-an-economic-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/01\/so-were-in-an-economic-emergency.html","title":{"rendered":"So … we’re in an “economic emergency”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump has been crowing non-stop, even before he assumed office, over how great<\/i> the economy is doing because of his actions. Or anticipated actions. Or promised actions. Or something. The market is up to record levels! Employment is up to record levels! Confidence levels are up to record levels!<\/p>\n

Pay raises? Well, we can’t let those be quite so up.<\/p>\n

President Trump sent a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday announcing his intention to cut pay raises for civilian government workers. In the letter, Trump cited his authority in times of \u201cnational emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare\u201d to make adjustments to the 2018 pay schedule for federal employees.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is, apparently, a time of “national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare.” You’d never know that from anything Trump says on a day to day basis.<\/p>\n

Federal government employees had been scheduled to receive a 1.9% increase. Trump is cutting that back to 1.4%. Outside of Washington, DC, the average will be more like 0.5%. Military personnel will still get a planned 2.1% raise.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t affect Trump, directly, of course, as he is independently wealthy (and getting wealthier), and donates his presidential salary to appropriate photo ops.<\/p>\n

We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a sustainable fiscal course. A pay increase of this magnitude is not warranted, and Federal agency budgets could not accommodate such an increase while still maintaining support for key Federal priorities such as those that advance the safety and security of the American people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those key Federal priorities at the moment seem to be putting together a massive tax cut package for top income earners and businesses (including Trump himself, who will net much more than a 1.4% income increase). Paid for in part, it seems, by cutting the pay of workers expected to carry out whatever other functions Trump wants to get done.<\/p>\n

So is this just simply a way to eke out a few more dollars for tax cuts? A pandering to his “government bad, so screw the people who work there” base of support? Revenge on government workers not being as enthusiastic about his orders as he’d like? A desire to make working for the public that much less attractive? Well, heck, why should a True Leader pick just one?<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\nTrump to cut pay raises for government workers<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump has been crowing non-stop, even before he assumed office, over how great the economy is doing because of his actions. Or anticipated actions. Or promised actions. Or something. The market is up to record levels! Employment is up to record levels! Confidence levels are up to record levels! Pay raises? Well, we can’t … Continue reading “So … we’re in an “economic emergency”?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,376],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-taxing-spending"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/unnamed-12.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131798,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/15\/on-republican-women-and-trump.html","url_meta":{"origin":134503,"position":0},"title":"On Republican Women and Trump","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 15-Oct-16 2:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Based on surveys, it seems that women (some widely publicized exceptions notwithstanding) who were Trump supporters are mostly still Trump supporters. They condemn his remarks, but believe that issues and policy still outweigh personal failings.'Vicki Sciolaro, chairwoman for the Kansas Republican Party\u2019s third congressional district appeared on Brooke Baldwin\u2019s show\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131215,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/07\/fact-checking-trump-police-shootings-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":134503,"position":1},"title":"Fact-checking Trump (Police Shootings Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Aug-16 1:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"No, Donald, \"they\" are not \"shooting our police at record levels.\" Nowhere close. Not that any police shootings are good things (or any shootings in general), but this sort of demagoguery benefits nobody but the politicians (like Trump) who want to gin up fear of \"them.\" Police Shootings Not at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":134376,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/21\/donald-trump-and-the-never-ending-war-in-afghanistan.html","url_meta":{"origin":134503,"position":2},"title":"Donald Trump and the Never-Ending War in Afghanistan","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 21-Aug-17 9:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Key points from Trump's speech. 1. American soldiers are really, really, really cool! The best in the world! Yay, us! 2. American soldiers are completely unified and have never had any divisions, and that is so, so wonderful. (Ignore that women in the military were highly controversial and divisive and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/unnamed-4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":137821,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/15\/trump-makes-the-case-himself-for-getting-him-out-of-office.html","url_meta":{"origin":134503,"position":3},"title":"Trump makes the case himself for getting him out of office","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 15-Feb-19 5:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The whole \"national emergency\" thing is a straightforward demonstration that Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit for office -- to the point where it begins to reach impeachable offense levels.'Trump echoed this spirit in his ill-fated national address touting the border wall, when he concluded, \u201cWhen I took the oath of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136690,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/04\/as-trump-pushes-for-more-coal-gop-congress-is-bankrupting-the-black-lung-fund.html","url_meta":{"origin":134503,"position":4},"title":"As Trump pushes for more coal, GOP Congress is bankrupting the black lung fund","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 4-Jun-18 7:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"There's actually a new epidemic of a very serious black lung variant appearing out there, even as the Trump administration is pushing hard for coal consumption to go up again. But this is the year when a special tax on coal which helps pay for a black lung medical fund\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/coal-miner.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":137369,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/10\/22\/donald-trump-and-the-big-lie-national-emergency-caravan-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":134503,"position":5},"title":"Donald Trump and the Big Lie (National Emergency Caravan! Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 22-Oct-18 6:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Jim Wright once again does a find job drilling down into the words of our current president and finds the lies behind the bombast -- in this case, about the caravan of Central American migrants heading toward the US through Mexico, and all the things he claims he knows about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/image5B255D5B15D.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134510,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134503\/revisions\/134510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}