President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump had this to say to the approximately 800,000 federal employees who aren’t being paid asthe historic government shutdownis in its 33rd day:
“It is a little bit of pain, but it’s going to be for the future of our country, and their children and their grandchildren and generations after them will thank them for their sacrifice,” she said. “Right now, I know it’s hard. I know people have families, they have bills to pay, they have mortgages, they have rents that are due.”
She said that the president is “trying to come up with a good solution here,” referring to his refusal to sign legislation funding federal government operations unless Congress gives him $5.7 billion to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico.
The border wall was his signature 2016 campaign promise — his means of fixing the problem of illegal immigration and one for which he pledged to make Mexico fit the bill. His demand now for $5.7 billion from U.S. taxpayers, needed to end what he calls a “crisis” of drugs and violence, has led to an unprecedented 33-day shutdown of the federal government, leaving workers without pay even as many of them must continue to work.
(Congressional Democrats say Trump’s wall is ineffective and immoral.)
“I think it is the most arrogant thing in the universe, this is beyond presumptuous,” Scarazzo tells PEOPLE. “She’s saying that this is more important for generations to come?”
Courtesy of Kristie Scarazzo
“This is not more important than my daughter, she is the most important thing in my life,” says Scarazzo, who like many Americans lives paycheck to paycheck. “How she can say that? What if we end up homeless or can’t pay for groceries? I’m sure she never had to worry about these things.”
In a previous interview with PEOPLE, Scarazzo said through tears: “I don’t know what I am going to do. I don’t even have my wedding ring to sell.”
Lara’s interview received plenty of blowback on Twitter.
Writer Bradford Pearsonwrote“If Lara Trump would like to pay my furloughed wife’s $600/month law school loans, our $2,100/month rent, or our $1,350/month day care bill, my email address is in my bio.”
He followed up withanother tweet, explaining: “These are, in fact, just a few of the bills that we’re currently using our savings to pay, savings that had previously been set aside for a down payment on our first house. So I’d say it’s more than “a bit of pain.”
Scarazzo and other unpaid federal workers are struggling.
A 31-year-old diabetic federal employee in Wisconsinhas rationed her insulinto make it last longer, because she can’t afford more. In Washington, D.C.,a contract security guard at the Smithsonianturned to food stamps. Across the country,FBI field offices are opening food banksfor agents and staff who can’t afford things to eat.
Earlier this month, the president said the funding stalemate could last for months —“even years.”Democrats urged him to reopen the government while they continue to debate border security.
Polls have largely shown Americans blame Trump and the Republicans for the shutdown.
The majority of Americans — 71 percent — don’t feel a border wall is worth the shutdown (compared to 28 percent who say the wall is worth it), according to arecent CBS poll.
source: people.com
