Trump's commerce secretary has little sympathy for unpaid federal workers. His advice: deal with it.
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00:00Mr. Secretary, there are reports that there are some federal workers who are going to homeless shelters to get food.
00:06Well, I know they are, and I don't really quite understand why.
00:10As I mentioned before, the obligations that they would undertake, say a borrowing from a bank or a credit union, are in effect federally guaranteed.
00:35So 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.
00:51I think what Wilbur is probably trying to say is that they will work along.
00:56I know banks are working along. If you have mortgages, the mortgagees, the mortgage, the folks collecting the interest and all of those things, they work along.
01:06And that's what happens in time like this. They know the people, they've been dealing with them for years, and they work along.
01:11The grocery store, and I think that's probably what Wilbur Ross meant, but I haven't seen a statement.
01:27As of today, I have a dollar and six cents in my bank account.
01:30You'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.
01:45But if they never got it, you're talking about a third of a percent on our GDP.
01:51So it's not like it's a gigantic number overall.
02:02Wilbur Ross saying he doesn't understand why.
02:06When he was asked about people going to food lines and pantries and the rest, he says he doesn't understand why they have to do that.
02:15I don't know, is this the let them eat cake kind of attitude or call your father for money?
02:21I don't know.