Community | November 29, 2010 | 42 comments

Obama to propose two-year pay freeze for federal workers

source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/sc-dc-1130-obama-freeze-web-20101129,0,315475...

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WASHINGTON — President Obama will announce Monday morning that he wants to freeze pay for federal employees for the next two years, a move the administration says would save more than $5 billion between now and 2012.

The freeze would not apply to military personnel but rather to all other civilian employees on the federal payroll. Congress would have to approve the proposal in order for it to take effect.

The plan is part of Obama's effort to contain the $1.3 trillion federal deficit, and will be followed by more proposals for spending reductions over the next few months, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said Monday morning.

The president's announcement lands as a pre-emptive strike on congressional Republicans, who are preparing a plan to slash federal pay and workforce next year. It comes in advance of a meeting between the Democratic president and GOP leaders at the White House on Tuesday.

"Clearly, this is a difficult decision," said Jeffrey Zients, Obama's chief performance officer and the Office of Management and Budget's deputy director for management.

Federal employees are hard-working, he said, and "central to delivering services to the American people. We believe it's the first of many difficult steps ahead … to put our nation on sound fiscal footing."

In other steps aimed at reining in the deficit, Obama has previously frozen salaries for senior White House officials and proposed doing the same for all political appointees across the government.

His administration is also working on scouring out what they call "excesses" in federal contracting and on reducing loss through improper payments. Obama has also directed federal agencies to dispose of excess real estate.

The president's announcement will come this morning in remarks to the press at the executive office building next to the White House.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/sc-dc-1130-obama-freeze-web-20101...
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42 comments // Obama to propose two-year pay freeze for federal workers

  • pissedoff
  • Paratus
    • +1
      Paratus  

    • Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD) wants to extend it to the military.

      I heard on the news that the average pay for federal workers is something like 150K/yr. The people making that kind of money are not the career folk. They are the SES and Schedule C employees which are mostly political appointees. The career employees top out at at GS 15 which tops out at about 130k. I also understand that the pay freeze applies to COLAs and not to within grade raises which are raises from 10 step 2 to 10 step 3 for instance. It also did not say anything about what is known as a high quality increase which is an agency granting a within grade based on performance. The normal within grade raises occur annually until exhausted then bi-annually but the high quality increase is not affected by the pay parameters and can be awarded outside the normal annual/biannual schedule.
      How about we freeze Congressional and Senate pay? I'm for that. At least that way Hillary would be Constitutionally qualified for her State Dept position not to mention that I don't know many that are worth the almost 180k/yr. HOw about we cut ALL foreign aid and contributions to the United Nations, WHO, World Bank etc. How about we do away with the Department of Education or the Bureau of Land Management. How about we ignore the pathetic whining for more taxes on those who produce such as high income and investors. Punishing success is not the direction we need to go. I laugh when I read that x amount is sufficient or "Who needs more than x to live?". I laugh because the reasoning is so pitiful. We need to reduce the deficit so we will take your money and not others. Where is the incentive? Abolish the tax code and make EVERYONE pay the same percentage. Title 26 is a confusing mess that is the product of special interest and government ideas of what is "good". If you want to have more then invest or earn more. Don't resort to thievery to get ahead. This is the same as kicking your opposition in the knee prior to a one mile race in order to win rather than making yourself a better runner. Sad.

    • 1 year ago
  • mitekillem
    • -1
      mitekillem  
    • Paratus:

      Unfortunately what you don't understand is that you're running a race against a whole team, who is on stilts.

      Let's see if simple fucking math will beat some reasoning into your head.
      Corporations in the US made RECORD earnings in the third quarter of 2010.
      http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/business/economy/24econ.html
      They made the money, not the government. Which means the private sector is fine.
      By record earnings, we mean 1.659 Trillion. Let's say you adjust it for inflation to what money was worth in 1960's money - it would be to the tune of 1.4 Trillion Dollars.

      Here is why you fail at economics.
      Let's assume that the government has taxed high income citizens, and corporations to the hilt...They Made Record Earnings during a depression. Meaning they have enough money to hire employees right? -that's how piss-on...I mean trickle-down economics work...right?
      Guess what. THERE ARE NO FUCKING JOBS.

      So, 1.65 Trillion in profits, which is record breaking, even when inflation is accounted for, and that's still not enough money for them to start hiring again.
      What does this mean?
      It means that people horde money when they invest it to get richer.
      Nothing trickles down.

      You also fail to understand that there is only 100% of the economy pie. Money is never really made...that's an illusion. They print more money, so that there is more dollars in the world, the value declines, and the number of X dollars out there is more, but the value is less.
      Guess what...there's still only 100% of the pie.

      Currently the poor, middle-class, and the government, share 5% of that pie.
      Guess who has the other 95%.

      Now...95% is a lot of money to buy things, invest, make money, etc, etc.
      It should "trickle down", right?
      Say maybe into something like, I don't know....MORE JOBs.
      Right?

      Then where are they?

    • 1 year ago
  • tverdell
  • mitekillem
    • 0
      mitekillem  
    • tverdell:

      I love it when people say we shouldn't tax the rich because "they're the one's who create jobs".
      And then both History and Proof show otherwise.

      That's why Reaganonmics were called Voodoo Economics (Today known as Trickle-Down Economics).

      There are even millionaires who have publicly gone on to say, 'Yes, we should be taxed more.' -Such as Warren Buffet. -And then people ignore his message, or still hold tightly to their false belief in Voodoo Economics. Yet contrary to their belief, a multitude of Millionaires, even one of the richest men in America (and one of the greatest economic minds in the world) Warren Buffet, going completely against what Republicans are suggesting.

      It's like Jesus coming down from Heaven, coming to your church, and telling you what he meant when he said something in the bible, and you Arguing with him. LOL
      --Idiots.

    • 1 year ago
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  

    • It's just political pandering bullshit.

      Oh wow, a whole five billion dollars. They'll probably use that to pay for a couple of cruise missiles and some AC-130's.

      Meanwhile, if we let Bush's tax cuts expire or, god forbid, raise taxes to pre-1980 levels, we could easily see upwards of a half trillion cut in the current deficit.

      Then all you gotta do is rein in military spending and wean ourselves out of these wars and you're pretty much the rest of the way there.

    • 1 year ago
  • fun_size
  • TheOuroborus
  • JohnA
  • Debrinconcita
    • 0
      Debrinconcita  

    • That's a great idea, they make more money and have too many benefit's. MORE than any other person's job except for maybe a CEO? I used to be a Federal Employee, they could use this time to feel for the rest of the people without JOB SECURITY. At least they know they will have a job for the next 2 yrs at least? THEY will have these job's until the day they die, unless they quit? I KNOW IT!

    • 1 year ago
  • CarlosIsDown
  • Saladin
  • kennymotown
  • fun_size
    • +2
      fun_size  
    • kennymotown:

      See i dont know about 90% taxes... I know there is a precedent for it but it seems extraordinarily unfair. Im all for high taxes on the rich but thats a little much for my tastes.

    • 1 year ago
  • kennymotown
    • +1
      kennymotown  
    • fun_size:

      It would be after the first 3.4 million earned! The first 3.4 million would be taxed at the 35 % Rate. It worked in the 50's and early 60's before Kennedy dropped it to 70%. I mean who in the hell can't live off 3.4 million dollars a year, besides to avoid the 90% tax rate the rich reinvested in their company's and employees which brought the middle class up to the highest standard of living ever seen in the history of the world. The rich have been literally getting away with murder since Reagan, while the rest of us have got no raise in income for the last 20 plus years. Why because we are the fools paying for the rich trying to keep up with just living and paying higher local taxes for schools, police and whatever else the rich have gotten away with not paying. The upper 2% of wage earners in this country don't send their kids off to some corporate wars for oil, they sit back and live the life and wait for the checks too roll in. Investment dollars profits are taxed at 15%, for what? No sweat, no labor just sitting on their asses collecting Mai Tys by some pool in Jamaica! While hard earned blood and sweat wages are taxed at what 25%-30%. What fucking fools we are!

    • 1 year ago
  • tverdell
  • kennymotown
    • +1
      kennymotown  
    • tverdell:

      So you think there is this never ending pile of money that the rich can earn? The pie is only so big, and the greed that you are allowing is purely a disease that is killing the world economy one town at a time. It only makes more sense to put money in the hands of people that will spend it. Awe I don't even think speaking my mind on this at this time will do any good, it's too late the damage of greed is happening now the global financial collapse will result in the few having all the gold, and in their wake death and destruction!

    • 1 year ago
  • tverdell
  • kennymotown
  • JohnA
    • +2
      JohnA  

    • If the federal government were run like a private business, two thirds of them would be out on there asses, so I wouldn't be complaining too much if I were them.

    • 1 year ago
  • Saladin
  • TomTucker
  • JohnA
  • tverdell
    • tverdell  
    • This comment was removed by its owner.
  • JohnA
    • +3
      JohnA  
    • tverdell:

      Fuck them, a two year freeze. When is the last time you got a raise? They make too much money now, and the work they do could be done by about half as many people. Get over it, there's a depression on. Suck it up like the rest of us.

    • 1 year ago
  • fun_size
    • +1
      fun_size  
    • JohnA:

      Exactly. The public sector gets paid waaay too much to do waaay to little. We need a serious overhaul of the system and nows the time to do it. Hell 5 years ago was the time to do it.

    • 1 year ago
  • tverdell
  • JohnA
  • fun_size
    • +4
      fun_size  

    • Not a bad idea. What really needs to be done is a reworking of the pension system in this country. Im sorry but someone working at a desk for 25 years answering calls and reading emails doesnt deserve to be paid for the next 40 years to literally do nothing just because they worked for the Fed or a state govt.

    • 1 year ago
  • mitekillem
  • Nephwrack
  • JohnA
    • +1
      JohnA  

    • Good, at least it's a start. Now they will know how the rest of us have been living the past three years.

    • 1 year ago
  • Sparky2U
    • -7
      Sparky2U  
    • Image

    • This is interesting considering the following:

      Obama Did This ?

      It's amazing what one person can do when they put their mind to it!

      If George W. Bush had doubled the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had criticized a state law that he admitted he never even read, would you think that he is just an ignorant hot head?

      If George W. Bush joined the country of Mexico and sued a state in the United States to force that state to continue to allow illegal immigration, would you question his patriotism and wonder who's side he was on?

      If George W. Bush had put 87,000 workers out of work by arbitrarily placing a moratorium on offshore oil drilling on companies that
      have one of the best safety records of any industry because one company had an accident would you have agreed?

      If George W. Bush had used a forged document as the basis of the moratorium that would render 87,000 American workers unemployed
      would you support him?

      If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a TelePrompTer installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you
      have laughed and said this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?
      If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?
      If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM,
      would you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given
      him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrass-
      ingly narcissistic and tacky?

      If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the nonexistent "Austrian language," would you have brushed it off as a
      minor slip?

      If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current in their income taxes, would
      you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had stated that there were 57 states in the United States, would you have said that he is clueless?
      If George W. Bush would have flown all the way to Denmark to make a five minute speech about how the Olympics would benefit him walking out his front door in Texas, would you have thought he was a self important, conceited, egotistical jerk?
      If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the
      5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

      If George W. Bush had misspelled the word "advice" would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoes as
      proof of what a dunce he is?

      If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he's a hypocrite?

      If George W. Bush's administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually get what happened on 9-11?

      If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than
      in New Orleans, would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

      If George W. Bush had created the position of 32 Czars who report directly to him, bypassing the House and Senate on much of what is happening in America, would you have approved?

      If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so,
      would you have approved?
      So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can't think of anything? Don't worry. He's done all this in 21 months -- so you'll have little over two years to come up with an answer.

    • 1 year ago
  • tverdell
  • moodyblue
    • +7
      moodyblue  
    • Sparky2U:

      Thanks for forwarding this to me. President Obama has made a few blunders during his first few months in office, but I understand that for a person who makes as many statements as he does, it is not surprising that he sometimes stumbles. I'd rather not respond to you in a tit for tat manner, but I think it is important to note that President Bush's 8 years in office were replete with mistakes and bad policies, all of which plunged our nation deeper into debt, turned allies away and laid the ground work for one of the most severe financial crises in history. That is why Americans overwhelmingly voted for change.

      Conservatives have derided the President of allegedly bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia. The White House says that it was not a bow, but whether it was or was not, how did you react when George Bush actually kissed the Saudi King? Check this out: http://tinyurl.com/pmc98x Were you upset? Did you protest?

      You note that President Obama made a mistake when speaking Spanish. It appears that he was making a joke. Nevertheless, how did you react when President Bush addressed Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Spanish. You will note that Italians do not speak Spanish. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1O9txBU9FE

      http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/science/earth/10notebook.html?ref=world

      President Obama has made a few gaffes but during his 8 years in office, President Bush misspoke hundreds of time.

      Here is a compilation: http://www.slate.com/id/76886/

      For example: "John Thune has got a common-sense vision for good forest policy. I look forward to working with him in the United Nations Senate to preserve these national heritages."

      Did you send out emails to your friends every time President Bush said something silly?

      You note that President Obama uses a teleprompter. I am sure you know that George Bush used a teleprompter. Oh yeah, Ronald Reagan also used a teleprompter. Check out the links: http://tinyurl.com/mlqz7h and http://tinyurl.com/r43fxj

      Your email notes that more people were killed by floods in the Midwest than died as a result of Hurricane Katrina. I looked it up and it just is not true. Of the many storms in the Midwest in 2009, the highest death toll thus far is 36 confirmed deaths. http://prod.newsday.com/flash-flood-warning-issued-for-louisville-area-1.1347443

      In comparison, there were 1,836 confirmed deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina.
      http://www.dhh.louisiana.gov/offices/page.asp?ID=192&Detail=5248

      President Obama inherited an economy in disarray and since taking office, has aimed to drastically revamp our nation's health care system and our crumbling infrastructure. I was curious to see how the national debt changed during the Bush years and according to PolitiFact.com, "When Bush took office; the national debt was $5.73 trillion. When he left, it was $10.7 trillion." http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jan/22/rahm-emanuel/5-tr...

      Did you know that billions of dollars were wasted during the Bush administration, particularly in massive contracts given out to private contractors that operate in Iraq and Afghanistan: According to one commission set up to investigate the use of private contractors, "billions of dollars of that amount ended up wasted due to poorly defined work orders, inadequate oversight and contractor inefficiencies. In one example, defense auditors challenged KBR after it billed the government for $100 million in costs for private security even though the contract prohibited the use of for-hire guards." http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-06-08-report-dod-spending_N.htm

      I hope that we are always critical of those we elect, but I see that you are not being consistent in your criticism. Your complaints about President Obama are ironic, given the fact that President Bush did in fact make so many of the same mistakes and made them much more often. Have you heard that expression? People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

      Anyhow, I hope this email receives you in good health and I look forward to talking to you soon.
      –MMAN
      http://mediamattersaction.org/emailchecker/200909170030

      See, I can copy and past stuff too. The difference is I properly attribute it, you conservatives should try it sometime, instead of your usual plagiarism.

    • 1 year ago
  • floydyboy
  • Varex_Sythe
    • +4
      Varex_Sythe  
    • Sparky2U:

      I almost feel bad having to tell you this, and possibly rub salt in a fresh wound. But Sparky2u, what Moodyblue did there in his response is, I believe, commonly referred to as pwnage on the internet.

    • 1 year ago
  • TomTucker
  • BrushwithDeathToothpaste
  • Stever_B
  • riverratt50
  • riverratt50
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