money to buy their lunch. so yes, there are lots of things our members are going to be affected by. this problem could be resolved so easily if mitch mcconnell would just take the vote on the house legislation that was passed last week that was republican legislation, passed by a republican congress that was developed by republicans, passed by a republican-led senate. it would fund the government. it would do a continuing resolution for homeland security and allow the parties to negotiate over border security. it s very, very simple. hey, all mitch mcconnell s got to do is just take a vote. seems pretty simple to me. thank you, sir. our best wishes to your members. we ll of course keep them in our thoughts and coverage. jay david cox, thank you. thank you. alexandria ocasio-cortez, the new democratic congresswoman from new york, is already making waves by calling on america s uber wealthy to pay a bigger
be paid until late this month. right now it does not look likely a deadline will be met. this is all being called, quote, borderline insanity, by the new york times editorial board. president trump now wants hundreds of millions of dollars to address the humanitarian crisis he caused. the situation is an especially rich example of the trump doctrine, break something, then demand credit, and in this case a lot of money for promising to fix it. joining me now is jay david cox, national president of the american federation of government employees. jay david, thank you for joining us. your union represents more than 600,000 government workers, many federal employees are now filing for unemployment benefits to get them through. talk to me about what you know about how your members are surviving without a paycheck. number one, it s 800,000 federal employees who are currently either being required to go to work, about 400,000, and are not being paid on
unions are saying this amounts to an assault on civil servants. sarah westwood, thanks so much. let s learn more about what this means. we want to bring in u.s. senate candidate jeff diehl. he s former state co-chairman for the trump campaign in massachusetts as well. thank you so much. we appreciate you being here. first and foremost, if this is the president s attempt to drain the swamp, we have jay david cox, another statement from him, the president of the afge who said this is more than union busting. it s democracy busting. what do you think? i don t gray. my mother was a union worker. unions obviously have their place in american society in the workforce. it s great. all this is trying to do is put, you know, there s 80% of the american workers are working in the private sector. it just allows government employees to be subject to this same performance standards and
president for this, david? just the way i see it. i mean, this is the guy that ran on that. you know, get the congress together, the two houses together, negotiate. that s what we do every day, negotiate, negotiate with management. so let s show your skills. get out there and negotiate and get back to work. i want to work, i want to get back to work. jay david cox, national president of the american federation of government employees and david fitzpatrick, thank you to you both. thank you. should republicans change senate rules in order to reopen the government? next we ll speak to a new jersey congressman who supports invoking the nuclear option. (vo) i was born during
how this affects government workers, jay david cox, american federation of government employees. one of the largest union representing federal and d.c. government employees. thanks for being with us. your reaction on behalf of your members. i think they are disapa pointed in the president and congress that they are not funding the government doing their job as we do our jobs every day going to work, servicing the american people. this is what is interesting. we were talking about this last nig night. if this isn t reconciled, they will be told you need to go to work still, but you re not going to get paid. how many people at home would say okay? that is because the government exempts itself from all the laws that it passes for other employers. convenient.