Leading politicians have been accused of being tone-deaf when it comes to the 800,000 federal workers who haven’t been paid

With the government shutdown entering day 34, members of the Trump administration continue to play down its effect on workers’ lives.

Donald Trump himself has framed it as a patriotic sacrifice made in the name of his quixotic national security ambitions, while some of the wealthier members of the administration have characterized going without pay for a month as a minor speed bump easily overcome.

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) WILBUR ROSS downplays 800k workers missing checks as "a third of a percent on our GDP. So it's just like it's a gigantic number."



ROSS then says this about fed workers going to homeless shelters to get food: "I don't quite understand why." Says they should just go take out loans pic.twitter.com/0sOmZGEozD

On Thursday the commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, said he “doesn’t really understand why” government workers have started going to food banks for sustenance.

Appearing on CNBC, Ross, whose net worth has been reported as at least $700m , suggested furloughed workers take out bank loans instead.

“The 30 days of pay that some people will be out, there’s no real reason why they shouldn’t be able to get a loan against it,” he said, seemingly encouraging government workers to apply for predatory payday-style loans, uncertain when they might be able to pay them back.

Play Video 1:04 'The idea that it's paycheck or zero is not a really valid idea' says Wilbur Ross - video

Some of those workers, who are set for a second missed paycheck on Friday, have taken to drastic measures to stay afloat. In Chicago, Transportation Security Administration workers have been stopping at area food pantries in uniform on their way to unpaid work, while in north Texas food pantries have said their resources have been pushed to near the breaking point. Over the weekend food banks in the Washington DC area reported being deluged.

Ross also offered criticism of TSA workers who have been unable to continue to show up to work unpaid.

“It’s kind of disappointing that air traffic controllers are calling in sick in pretty large numbers,” he said. Many of them cannot afford to do work for nothing, he was told by the host Andrew Ross Sorkin.

'They are eventually going to be paid. And even if they aren’t, it’s not like it’s going to be a big hit on the economy overall' Wilbur Ross

“Well, remember this, they are eventually going to be paid,” Ross said. “And even if they aren’t, it’s not like it’s going to be a big hit on the economy overall.

“You’re talking about 800,000 workers and while I feel sorry for the individuals that have hardship cases, 800,000 workers, if they never got their pay, which is not the case, they will eventually get it, but if they never got it, you’re talking about a third of a percent on GDP so it’s not like it’s a gigantic number overall,” he said.

Very good news for the GDP. Workers might not be so lucky. While an IOU may work for a multimillionaire, I’ll pay you eventually doesn’t tend to work when it comes to rent and groceries for working families.

Ross’s comments characterized a more general response to the shutdown from the wealthy right.

The White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett suggested furloughed workers were “better off” over the Christmas holiday because they were getting time off without having to use vacation days.

“And then they come back and then they get their back pay, then they’re, in some sense, they’re better off,” Hassett said.

Play Video 1:50 'We want to work': how the shutdown is affecting US federal workers – video

When asked if he could relate to the stress of economic uncertainty he had put people in a couple of weeks ago, Trump said:“I can relate. I’m sure the people that are on the receiving end will make adjustments. They always do. People understand what’s going on. Many of those people that won’t be receiving a paycheck, many of those people agree 100% with what I’m doing.”

Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, echoed that sacrificial sentiment and praised unpaid government workers as noble “volunteers” laboring for love of president and country.

April Wolfe (@AWolfeful) Larry Kudlow is talking about unpaid workers like they're some kind of new honorable volunteer corps we should admire instead of people facing forced labor we should be outraged about. https://t.co/wDgm6sXbzK

When asked how coming to work without pay for fear of being fired counted as volunteering, Kudlow, a millionaire, bristled at the question. “They do it because of their love for the country and the office of the presidency and presumably because their allegiance to President Trump …”

On Monday Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, waded into the shutdown controversy, saying going over a month without pay was a “little bit of pain”.

Bold (@BoldTV) Many government employees are continuing to work without pay, and some are not allowed to work during the #governmentshutdown. @LaraLeaTrump wants these citizens to know that their sacrifice is not in vain. pic.twitter.com/royaX1Roy0

“Listen, it’s not fair to you and we all get that,” she said on the digital news network Bold TV. “But this is so much bigger than any one person. 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 right now.”

Meanwhile anger from unpaid staffers compelled to arrange travel for Mike Pompeo’s wife, Susan, for the pair’s eight-day trip to the Middle East, boiled within the state department.

“This is BS. You don’t bring more people that need staffing, transportation, etc when embassy employees are working without being paid,” a source told CNN of the trip.

Melania Trump too has been criticized for utilizing a military plane for a vacation to Florida just as the president blocked the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, from visiting troops in Afghanistan.

Responding to Ross’s comments, Pelosi asked “Is this the ‘let them eat cake’ kind of attitude?”.