Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) told Breitbart News Thursday that taxpayers are paying $400 million per day for non-essential federal bureaucrats not to work during the Democrat shutdown.
“Make no mistake – the Schumer Shutdown is hitting Americans where it hurts the most – their wallets. Every day Democrats drag this on, taxpayers will foot a $400 million bill for 750,000 non-essential bureaucrats NOT to work,” Ernst said in a written statement to Breitbart News.
She added, “Speaking of doing nothing, Congress still gets paid for failing to do its job. As if that was not bad enough, our economy could lose billions of dollars, our servicemembers will see their paychecks delayed, and essential services for the American people will be unavailable. Democrats’ political stunt is harming hardworking folks and must end now.”
The Hawkeye State conservative communicated with Breitbart News after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) provided her with a detailed cost breakdown of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) shutdown.
The CBO analysis found that the shutdown will cost $400 million per day of its duration to pay roughly 750,000 federal bureaucrats not to work. It also found:
- Servicemembers will likely see their pay for serving their country delayed
- The last shutdown cost $3 billion in gross domestic product
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) reported that the Democrats’ counterproposal to the Republican stopgap spending bill would eliminate health savings from the Big Beautiful Bill and permanently extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies, adding $1.5 trillion to the national debt over the next ten years.
Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a statement:
If lawmakers want to extend any of the ACA subsidies, they should do so responsibly by targeting the extension and at least offsetting the costs. Ideally we should be offsetting new borrowing twice over. Plenty of options are available, from adopting site-neutral payments to reducing Medicare Advantage upcoding to funding Cost Sharing Reduction payments.
Meanwhile, if lawmakers want to pare back parts of the reconciliation law, they should focus on the $6 trillion in tax cuts and spending increases, not the payfors.
“Meanwhile, we should be able to keep the government’s lights on without making our devastating fiscal situation even worse,” MacGuineas concluded.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
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