GOP lawmaker doubts government workers live paycheck to paycheck

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said a government shutdown would not truly impact employees and scoffed at the idea that a federal worker would need their next paycheck to make ends meet. 

Tonight, I asked Scott Perry (R-Pa.) about effect of fed employees being furloughed. He argued it had no real impact since employees eventually get paid back.

“Who’s living that they’re not going to make it to the next paycheck?”

— Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris) December 21, 2018

“Who’s living that they’re not going to make it to the next paycheck?” he asked Politico reporter Sarah Ferris.

{mosads}“Why are government employees so sacrosanct? Private sector employees deal with this all the time…The government’s not immune to these things,” he added.

Capitol Hill is currently in negotiations with the White House over a bill to fund parts of the government with the coffers for several agencies set to run dry at the end of Friday. A partial government shutdown would furlough thousands of federal employees. 

A 2017 survey found that 78 percent of full-time workers live paycheck to paycheck, with 56 percent saying they were overwhelmed by debt. There was no differentiation for federal employees.

The House passed a government funding plan that includes $5 billion for a border wall, a piece of legislation that is meant to appease the president’s key immigration demand but is likely dead on arrival in the Senate, leaving both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue without a backup plan. 

The three-term congressman barely survived the midterm cycle after Pennsylvania faced widespread redistricting, holding off a Democratic challenger by only two points.