But taxing his wrinkled ass at %70 would be an unthinkable hardship…

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Thursday said he doesn’t understand why federal workers are visiting food banks during the partial government shutdown, saying they should instead seek low-interest loans from banks and credit unions to supplement their lost wages.

“I know they are, and I don’t really quite understand why,” Ross said on CNBC when asked about federal workers going to food banks. Ross is a billionaire and a longtime friend of President Trump.

His comment drew immediate criticism from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

“Is this the ‘let them eat cake’ kind of attitude?” she said. “Or call your father for money?”

In his television interview, Ross repeatedly stressed that federal workers should simply take out loans to cover their expenses while the government was shut down. He acknowledged they would have to likely pay some interest, but he said it should help them cover costs.

“The idea that it’s paycheck or zero is not a really valid idea,” he said. “There’s no reason why some institution wouldn’t be willing to lend.”

Ross leads one of the agencies that is directly affected by the shutdown that began Dec. 22, and more than 40,000 of his employees haven’t been paid for weeks.

The White House is working to quell a growing anger among the 800,000 federal workers who are scheduled to miss their second paychecks this week, as many have begun calling in sick or refusing to show up for work. The Trump administration has scrambled to try to deflect the shutdown’s effect on the economy, but they’ve done this in part by requiring thousands of unpaid federal employees to continue doing their jobs.

Many of those workers are beginning to revolt, either calling in sick or saying they can’t afford gasoline.

“It’s kind of disappointing that the air traffic controllers are calling in sick in pretty large number,” Ross said.