Govt shutdown - no retroactive pay for the furloughed

As this Post story notes, even Gingrich and Gang in 1995 weren't so heartless as to refuse to retroactively pay federal employees furloughed in the government shutdown then.

But, John Boehner, Eric Cantor and gang are.

Rep. James Moran (D-Va), whose Northern Virginia district is home to thousands of federal employees, said furloughed workers should not expect to be paid, based on feedback he is getting from Republican colleagues in Congress.

“It is highly unlikely that about 1 million federal employees who are not working will ever be reimbursed,” Moran said in a conference call Wednesday with reporters. He called the majority of his GOP colleagues “far more anti-government in terms of their mindset” than former House Speaker Newt Gingrich during the 1990s shutdown, when Congress agreed to reimburse furloughed workers retroactively.

I would ordinarily say this would increase the "win" factor for Democrats of a shutdown, but tea partiers will massage this to blame Obama for the likely small minority of federal employees sympathetic to such a message. But, independent voters within federal employees are more numerous and more likely to believe Dems' messaging. Nonetheless, this isn't a slam dunk.