Commerce secretary says there's no 'good excuse' for furloughed workers to run out of cash

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday that he doesn’t see why furloughed federal workers are having to go to food banks and are having trouble taking care of their families when they could just take out a loan. 

“When you think about, these are basically government guaranteed loans because the government has committed these folks will get their back pay once this whole thing gets settled down,” Ross said during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“So, there really is not a good excuse why there really should be a liquidity crisis,” he said. Ross conceded that the workers “might have to pay a little bit of interest, but the idea that its paycheck or zero is not a really valid idea.” 

Ross, who Forbes estimates is worth about $700 million, said, “It’s kind of disappointing that the air traffic controllers are calling in sick in pretty large numbers,” because “they are eventually going to be paid.” 

But he called it “hyperbole” to say that the government shutdown – which is now in its 34th day, making it the longest in U.S. history – is a threat to the overall economy, or the American brand internationally. 

“We’ve had shutdowns before, albeit for not such a long period as we’ve been thus far,” he said. 

“Put it in perspective. You’re talking about 800,000 workers,” Ross explained. “While I feel sorry for the individuals that have hardship cases,” Ross said even if all those workers were never paid again, “you’re talking about a third of a percent on our GDP, so it’s not like its a gigantic number overall.” 

Host Andrew Sorkin told Ross that some federal workers “are having to go to homeless shelters to get food.” 

“Well, I know they are and I don’t really quite understand why, because as I mentioned before the obligations that they would undertake, say of borrowing from a bank or a credit union, are, in effect, federally guaranteed,” he replied. 

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U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Amy McElroy, left, and Lt. j.g. Sean Hill, who both missed a paycheck a day earlier during the partial government shutdown, talk about the stacks of fishing fleet inspections backing-up in the marine inspection office at Sector Puget Sound base, Jan. 16, 2019, in Seattle. The four civilian employees who normally handle the paperwork have been furloughed, leaving it to Hill to complete, along with his other duties. The Coast Guard is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is unfunded during the shutdown, now in its fourth week. Elaine Thompson, APA TSA officer closes the entrance of the Miami International Airport’s Terminal G, during the ongoing the government shutdown, in Miami on Jan. 12,  2019. The current partial shutdown of the US federal government has become the longest in US history, on Jan. 12, surpassing the previous 21-day shutdown of 1995-1996. Over 800,000 federal employees are impacted by the shutdown, with around 400,000 furloughed and being paid later and the rest deemed ‘essential’, who must work without pay, though retroactive pay is expected, with Jan. 11 marking the first missed paycheck. CRISTOBAL HERRERA, EPA-EFEJack Lyons, a contractor working on massive rocket test stands for NASA, stands in his workshop while spending the furlough on his small side business making props for marching bands, in Madison, Ala., Jan. 8, 2019. “They’re trying to use people as bargaining chips, and it just isn’t right,” Lyons said. Unlike civil service workers who expect to eventually get back pay, Lyons doesn’t know if he’ll ever see a dollar from the shutdown period. David Goldman, AP

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