White House threatens mass layoffs amid deepening US government shutdown

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett has said that layoffs for federal employees will begin if President Donald Trump decides that congressional negotiations to end the government shutdown “are absolutely going nowhere.”

“I think that everybody’s still hopeful that when we get a fresh start at the beginning of the week, that we can get the Democrats to see that it’s just common sense to avoid layoffs like that,” Hassett said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

His comments come as the government shutdown enters its fifth day.

According to NBC, Democrats are holding their ground on their health-care demands, pushing to include a permanent extension of enhanced premium tax credits in any government funding legislation.

Republicans, however, argue that those conversations should happen in December, not as part of government shutdown negotiations, escalating the standoff.

The Senate again on Friday, failed to pass two funding bills that would have ended the shutdown. The Republican measure would have funded the government through late November, while Democrats’ version included additional health-care funding. 

The resolutions previously failed multiple times in the upper chamber last week.

The Trump administration has repeatedly warned of mass layoffs during a government shutdown, saying last week that they would be “imminent.”

Trump also said that the shutdown offered him an “unprecedented opportunity” to slash the size of federal agencies and lay off government workers, although the administration has not yet followed through on its threat.

Hassett said Sunday that Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought are “lining things up and getting ready to act if they have to, but hoping that they don’t.”

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Still, Hassett expressed optimism that negotiations this week could resolve the impasse.

“We think the Democrats, there’s a chance that they’ll be reasonable once they get back into town on Monday,” Hassett said on CNN.

“And if they are, then I think there’s no reason for those layoffs.”