A Michigan restaurant owner who is irate over the government shutdown is offering Coast Guard members free food.
“They have car payments now, they have house payments now, they have to pay for their kids’ braces now,” Joe Durm, the owner of Java Joe’s Café, said in a statement obtained by WPBN. “This is what irritates me to no end.”
He claimed that lawmakers “don’t even think about these people.”
Durm announced the offer on Facebook on Dec. 27.
“Good evening Saint Ignace. Java Joe just realized the Coast Guard is not being paid during this government shutdown therefore Java Joe’s will give any member of the Coast Guard a free breakfast,” Durm wrote.
A number of Facebook users praised the move.
Many said they’d be going to the restaurant after Durm’s announcement to show their support for his offer to the Coast Guard.
Good evening Saint Ignace. Java Joe just realized the Coast Guard is not being paid during this government shutdown therefore Java Joe’s will give any member of the Coast Guard a free breakfast.
由 Java Joe's Cafe 发布于 2018年12月27日周四
Partial Shutdown
The government shutdown is affecting 25 percent of the federal government, or about 15 percent of the federal workforce.
The shutdown affects about 15 percent of the federal workforce. More than 420,000 government employees deemed essential were expected to work without pay and over 380,000 were to be furloughed, according to projections by the staff of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), vice chair of the Appropriations Committee.
The workers were set to receive their last paychecks on Dec. 28. The next paycheck, scheduled for Jan. 11, will be affected, Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting White House chief of staff, told The Epoch Times.
President Donald Trump has refused to sign a budget that didn’t include funding for the southern border wall, noting the increasingly large migrant caravans and the fact that 100,000 illegal aliens were apprehended in October and November alone.
Democrat leaders, most of whom voted for funding for a border barrier in 2006 and 2013, have said they would not vote for a budget that includes wall funding. Republican Senate leaders haven’t brought a budget approved by the House to a vote.
Coast Guard Funding
The Coast Guard was the only military department affected by the partial government shutdown and members were facing a potential pay delay.
But the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Coast Guard found a way to pay the workforce on Dec. 31, the Coast Guard’s official blog stated on Dec. 28.
“Generally, the Coast Guard lacks the authority to pay its members during a lapse in appropriations. The circumstances of this lapse are unique because of the timeline of the lapse in relation to the military pay process. Ultimately, extensive research and legal analysis between the Coast Guard, DHS, and OMB determined the Coast Guard has the authority to execute the remainder of pay and allowances for December,” the blog stated.
The one-time action did not guarantee a paycheck on Jan. 15.
According to the Washington Examiner, President Trump personally intervened to make sure the Coast Guard was paid on Monday.
“President Trump personally urged his team to find a solution that would allow the administration to make this week’s $75 million payroll,” officials told the outlet. “The president is trying to make the shutdown as painless as possible for workers, and this case proved it,” said one official.
On Twitter, Trump said after the announcement that the Coast Guard members would be paid, “Great work by my Administration over the holidays to save Coast Guard pay during this shutdown. No thanks to the Democrats who left town and are not concerned about the safety and security of Americans!”
