Keith’s note: The White House / OMB are taking a stark stance on “imminent” layoffs across the government. They want people gone. Meanwhile NASA’s top leadership is going to receptions in Australia at IAC. Stories below.
Government shutdown live updates, CNBC “We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for [Democrats],” Trump said at the White House on Tuesday, “like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.”
White House says fed layoffs are ‘imminent’, Politco “Layoffs of federal employees are “imminent,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday after the Trump administration announced plans for widespread staff cuts during the government shutdown. President Donald Trump “has directed his Cabinet, and the Office of Management and Budget is working with agencies across the board to identify where cuts can be made,” Leavitt told reporters Wednesday at the White House after the government shutdown began at midnight.”
The government shutdown is a slow-boil political crisis, CNN “Day One saw the rollout of initial battleground strategies: The White House adopted a ruthless position, threatening mass firings of federal workers and halting billions of dollars in public funds to humiliate Democratic leaders.”
Trump Doubles Down Amid Government Shutdown as Layoffs Loom: ‘Cry All You Want’, Time “Republicans must use this opportunity of Democrat-forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud,” Trump stated, before going on to claim that “billions of dollars” could be saved. The President earlier indicated that Democrats would feel the main brunt of the layoffs, telling reporters in the Oval Office: “We’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected, and they’re Democrats. They’re gonna be Democrats.”
If Vought thought a shutdown was really some secret trick to fire whoever he wants, he’d just be quietly doing it. He wouldn’t be using it as a threat to try and scare Democrats into backing off.
I do think they’ll find some people to fire, and then they’ll loudly blame the shutdown and the democrats for it. But they’d have done it no matter what.