This week, a political group known as the ‘Tea Party Patriots’, created a petition that is asking president Trump to cut all federal workers’ salaries by 20%. Their reasoning behind the request is stated on their website, saying that “Government action has forced countless businesses to close, leaving over 30 million Americans out of work; consequently, government must pay a price, and bear a burden, like the one it is imposing on the rest of us, the American people”. Although much of the disdain found within the petition seems to be directed at higher ranking bureaucrats and politicians, the pay reduction nonetheless includes all federal employees. This misguided anger would only hurt essential workers, such as employees of the United States Postal Service (USPS), who have been on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic, delivering mail and suffering through cases of the deadly virus. This doesn’t seem to be a concern to the Tea Party Patriots; in their online petition titled, ‘BALANCE THE PAIN: MAKE WASHINGTON TAKE A PAY CUT TOO’, no federal worker is spared from their desired 20% pay cut. Why 20%? The petition states that this number represents a “one percent cut for every million Americans who lost their jobs in April.” The petition goes on to state that the government should adhere to the same suffering that the private sector is enduring, until a vaccine is developed: “We cannot open schools, or enjoy a ballgame as a spectator in the stands, or go to a movie, or a hundred other things we took for granted, until we develop a vaccine for COVID-19.” This tit-for-tat mentality is ill-conceived and dangerous. It would hurt millions of working-class Americans with federal jobs. Tea Party Patriots have over 1.5 million likes on Facebook, and tout millions of members according to their website. It is imperative that this kind of rhetoric is dismissed in order to avoid hurting the heroes who have worked through the pandemic. Luckily, it is highly unlikely that congress would ever vote to lower their own paychecks. To read the petition, follow this link: https://www.teapartypatriotsaction.org/balancepain/