Mass. Rep. Clark, the No. 2 Dem., slams Republicans as shutdown layoffs begin
A top U.S. House Democrat has accused congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump of playing politics with the lives of federal workers as it began a wave of mass layoffs on Friday.
"Let's be clear: Republicans aren't laying off hardworking Americans because they have to. It's because they want to. All to pay for billionaires' tax cuts," U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, the House's Democratic whip, said in a statement.
The Trump administration announced Friday that it had begun what it described as "substantial" layoffs of federal workers, as the government remains shuttered due to the inability of Congress to reach a funding deal , NBC News reported.
"The RIFs have begun," White House budget director Russ Vought said on X, referring to "reduction in force" for workers.
A spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget confirmed to NBC News that the layoffs had begun.
In her statement, Clark, D-5th District, called the move part of "the same story."
"Slashing health care. Taking away people's jobs. Even withholding troops' paychecks," she said. "Republicans will continue to make life harder and more expensive for regular people at every turn."
The shutdown now appears guaranteed to drag into next week after the U.S. Senate failed to advance competing funding bills, including a previously approved House bill, according to CBS News .
Democrats have dug in over health care, and have said they won't move on the deadlock without guarantees on Medicaid cuts and enhanced tax credits for the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at year's end.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., stayed on that message during an appearance at a neighborhood health clinic in Dorchester's Uphams Corner section on Friday, accusing the GOP of acting as "reverse Robin Hoods."
"As a result of Trump's 'Big, Ugly Bill, over 320,000 Massachusetts residents will lose their health care," Markey said, using the Democrats' nickname for the domestic policy megabill that Trump signed into law earlier this year.
"Under their bill, 337,000 Massachusetts residents will see skyrocketing premiums for their health costs," the Malden Democrat argued.
Republicans have blamed Democratic intransigence for the ongoing deadlock.
During an appearance on a C-SPAN call-in show, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson told one caller, angry over the U.S. military potentially missing a paycheck, that "Democrats are the ones that are preventing you from getting a check," CBS News reported.
Trump, meanwhile, accused Democrats of "using health care as a cudgel" and again threatened to cut programs if the shutdown doesn't end, the network reported.
In her Friday statement, Clark reiterated that resistance, arguing that congressional Democrats "will not be a rubber stamp for this cruelty and corruption.
"We will not back down from bullies. We'll keep fighting for our constituents and our country," she said.
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