(This action affects civilian employees, not regular military.)

Remarkably, Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), who represents Northern Virginia suburbs outside Washington, complains, “We cannot balance the budget on the backs of our federal employees and I will work with my House and Senate colleagues to keep the pay increase in our appropriations measures that we vote on in September.” Perhaps she should have thought about that before she voted for tax cuts for the rich that are responsible for a gusher of red ink.

And, as we noted, the administration doesn’t even have the political sense to wait a bit before announcing their reverse-Robin Hood scheme is getting worse. CNBC explains the plan to index capital gains:

It would be an estimated $100 billion tax cut that would benefit largely those who own assets such as stocks and real estate. Mnuchin told The New York Times in July that the Treasury was looking at whether it could use regulatory powers to allow for the change. Critics have said Congress would need to approve it. Indexing to inflation means taxpayers could adjust the initial value of an asset for inflation when selling it, potentially saving a lot of money on long-held assets by reducing the amount of capital gains tax they would need to pay.

There really is no end to the greed, the desire to reward the donor class over working- and middle-class people. If Democrats cannot explain the fiscal recklessness and robber-baron mentality that now drives GOP economics, they really should hang up their cleats.