Dems take it easy as government shutdown continues

Transportation Security Administration agents are working without pay. Same with National Park Service emergency responders, not to mention thousands of other government employees.

But top pols in Congress are taking it easy amid the ongoing partial shutdown of the federal government.

Soon-to-be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi traveled nearly 5,000 miles away from Washington, DC. The Dem was holed up at the Fairmont Orchid Resort in Kona, Hawaii, according to multiple reports. Rooms there go for $489 to $3,499 a night, while its luxe “spa without walls” offers treatments for $159 and up.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), a furious Trump critic, was relaxing last week in the Bahamas, where she took in a traditional post-Christmas parade.

And New York’s Sen. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, has been at home with his new grandson, a spokesman for the Dem told the Washington Post.

President Trump has been left to seethe in the nation’s capital, where he decided to stay instead of going with his original plans for a 16-day vacation at his south Florida resort. He huddled with his top budget negotiators Friday night.

“I am in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal on Border Security,” he tweeted Saturday. “From what I hear, they are spending so much time on Presidential Harassment that they have little time left for things like stopping crime and our military!”

He went on to blame the recent deaths of two migrant children on Dems.

“Any deaths of children or others at the Border are strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies,” Trump tweeted, referencing the deaths of Guatemalan kids who’d been taken into US Border Patrol custody.

The government entered a partial shutdown last week after Congress failed to pass a budget bill. Democrats refused to go along with Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion for a border wall.

The Republican-led House had passed legislation including the requested cash, but the Senate didn’t take up the bill due to opposition from Dems, at least nine of whom are needed to get the budget across the finish line.

Federal employees received paychecks Friday for work they performed earlier this month. But they won’t be paid on the government’s next scheduled payday, Jan. 11, unless the logjam breaks.

As back-up cash runs out for nine of the government’s 15 Cabinet-level departments, along with numerous agencies, the shutdown pain will continue to spread.

Senate Dems estimated that “more than 420,000 will be working without pay”.