Some 800,000 federal workers are still without a paycheck, a situation that the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Kevin Hassett, described as a “vacation.” Meanwhile, stories are continuing to roll out about the devastating impact the lack of pay is having on employees, from worrying about rent and bills to rationing medication. And some 450,000 workers are currently being told to go to work even while they wait for their paychecks, prompting several lawsuits from federal worker unions against the federal government.
Jim Braude was joined by Valyria Lewis, a national union representative for the American Federation of Government Employees and a former TSA worker; David Martinez, a 20-year employee of the Federal Bureau of Prisons; and Linda Bilmes, a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce who is now a Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School.
