The Democrat-led government shutdown has now extended into a second month, but the longer it drags on, the more government waste and largesse it exposes. We recently learned 1-in 8 people in America are on SNAP nutrition benefits, including an estimated 1.5 million illegal aliens. Now we're getting a look at how many federal employees are considered "non-essential," and how much it is costing American taxpayers.
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst revealed in a Breitbart News exclusive interview that while essential workers like military, TSA, and air traffic controllers continue to work without pay, there are many more non-essential employees who are not working---but are still owed full back pay. "As of today, we are $8.8 billion into payment from our taxpayers to people who have not been working," said Ernst. "No productivity for the federal government from these 750,000 workers."
The Trump administration has tried to use the shutdown to trim the federal workforce, but so far has been blocked in the courts. At the same time, Democrats have blocked an effort to pay essential workers during the shutdown. Ernst says it is costing taxpayers $400 million per workday just to pay these non-essential workers. "It's not really these employees' fault, and I would agree they need to be back paid," she told Breitbart. "But moving forward, we need to identify then, how many of them do we really need to keep on the federal government payroll?"
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