"The higher the fee, the more benefits you tend to have. It's a dangerous proposition: you'd better start using those benefits, or it's going to be really hard to justify the fee."
My reforms changed the welfare system to make work pay and brought workless households to an all-time low. But because of the post-Covid collapse in vetting and rise of health-related welfare claims, millions of workers could take home more from welfare than wages after tax. This is an outrageous state of affairs. The system must stop writing off thousands every day and incentives to work need to be restored to end this ruinous waste of human potential.
Federal workers will bear the brunt of the stalemate. During the 2018-19 shutdown, which lasted 34 days, nearly 800,000 federal employees were either furloughed or were forced to work without pay. Additionally, active-duty military personnel will likely forego pay during a shutdown. This time around, the OMB has threatened mass firing of federal workers, which would increase the numbers. All government and military workers' wages will eventually have to be repaid when the government reopens.
"We are seeking improvements in the pension plan for the first time in over a decade," Jim Araby of UFCW Local 5 told KGO-TV. "We know Safeway can afford it. In 2023, Safeway paid a dividend to their shareholders of $4 billion. This year, they reported $80 billion in revenue and nearly $1 billion in net profit."
