President Donald Trump had four words for U.S. Navy sailors not receiving paychecks in light of the federal government shutdown — “Don’t worry about it.”
Trump spoke those words Sunday a celebration of the Navy’s 250th anniversary aboard the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in Norfolk, Virginia, The Hill reported.
“As your commander in chief, I will always stand for you. I promise you that,” Trump said. “You know that, that’s why you voted for me in numbers that nobody’s ever seen before. And I want you to know that despite the current Democrat-induced shutdown, we will get our service members every last penny.”
“Don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it. Do not worry about it, it’s all coming,” Trump added.
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At midnight last Wednesday, the federal government went into a shutdown after congressional leaders did not come to a deal on a stopgap spending bill.
Federal employees, including service members, have either been furloughed or are working without pay for the duration of the shutdown. When the shutdown ends, they will receive back pay.
The blame for the shutdown has been thrust upon Democrats.
The Department of Health and Human Services’s (HHS) website said “mission-critical activities of HHS will continue during the Democrat-led government shutdown.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Sunday the House “did its job” in the recent funding battle. Last month, the House passed what Johnson said was a “clean” and “nonpartisan” stopgap spending bill that would fund the government through late November.
“The House did its job,” Johnson on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “The reason that House Republicans are home working in their districts, and I suspect House Democrats should be as well, is because we did that.”
“We passed a bipartisan, very clean continuing resolution a couple of weeks back now, and sent it to the Senate,” he added.
The Senate will vote again Monday on two funding bills that could reopen the government.
