"Unlike the cruel Bush, who demanded that you stand, I require only that you kneel."
Posted on 11/09/2012 11:22:20 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
With President Obama safely re-elected to a second term, federal workers feel comfortable to make their demands known. As debate rages over lowering the federal deficit, they want a pay raise.
As CNN's Money magazine reports:
[Union president Colleen M.] Kelley said her No. 1 issue right now is getting federal worker salaries unfrozen on Jan. 1, even if that means working out a deal later in the year and making pay hikes retroactive to Jan. 1.
In the midst of that, federal workers are also nervous about the fiscal cliff , which includes $1.2 trillion worth of spending cuts over a decade if Congress fails to act by Jan. 1. Some 277,000 workers -- 14% of the federal work force -- could lose their jobs in the next 12 months if the U.S. cannot avoid the cliff, according to a study by the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.
A recent study by two scholars at the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation showed that the average federal employee currently makes significantly more than their private sector counterparts. As the authors wrote in the Wall Street Journal this past April, two additional studies supported their analysis:
When the public pay debate began to simmer two years ago, we were among the few analysts to show that many public employees—federal, state and local, including public school teachers—are paid more than what their skills would merit in the private economy...
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Of course they do.
Despite the roaring economy, there is trouble out there.
Now pay your taxes - your hard working government needs a raise. :)
right on brother. I tell people all the time we live like te government is royalty.
We could fire half of them cut the pay of the rest by half and the country would run even smoother.
Pretty broad brush there, Terry: you might be surprised to learn that federal employees are pretty much a cross-section of the society they work for. Some smart, some dumb, and most somewhere in the middle. Most are thankful to have their job and are fearful of losing it when the train wreck happens. Many—most, even—are not supporters of the current administration. At least that’s so in the defense sector.
Amd most understand inflation as well as you do and decry Bernanke’s “QE2” BS,
TC
I tried explaining that to a republican co-worker who worships Obama. He don’t get it either. I told him something gotta give, you can’t have quality and lower costs at the same time.
They haven’t had a payraise since 2007 or so. I think a small 1.7 percent wouldn’t hurt. However, we need to get rid of 1/2 of them to pay for it. In the long run that would be worth it.
Especially Ben Affleck and Brad Pitt who have TWO actors in the family making tons of money. The only problem is that in both of these families, only one works at a time. When Brad is working, Angelina stays with the kids and when Angelina is working, brad stays with the kids. The same thing happens in Ben Affleck’s family, When Ben is working, Jennifer stays with the kids and when Jennifer is working, Ben stays with the kids. Ben turned down being in Homeland because it was Jennifer who was working.
A girl I know worked for social security admin. for 10 years and gets 3k/month retirement from it.
Well your girl is a liar. There is no way on Earth that is true.
Let the bush tax cuts expire.
I want that to happen, but I am not sure it would hurt everyone enough. I want it to hurt everyone (even me) just to prove to these wacky liberals how stupid they were. Unfortunately, I don’t think Obama will do anything to show what a fraud he is.
Funny, I’m a federal employee and I’m wondering if I’ll have a job next year.
Except for the cuts to the military, the more I read about sequestration the more I like it.
277,000 federal workers out of jobs. Love it.
Sorry, Leatherneck.
The troops in the rear eating steak and lobster while the grunts eat cold C-rats in the field isn’t going to register very high on the sympathy meter.
Free Obamacare and 20 year retirement isn’t enough for these leeches is it?
While I understand the sentiments, I get a bit miffed when I see these stories because not all of us are the leeches that federal workers are depicted as (while many are leeches, not all of us fit the description). Many of us are no different than the rest of the work force. I’m retired AF and now a DOD employee. While I would love to not have had my pay frozen the past couple years, I’m one of the minority that understands that I need to be grateful for a job and I pay taxes the same as everyone else. I think we need to make serious cuts in the number of federal workers and only hope (like any sane person) that my job isn’t one of those that gets cut. I am a supervisor in a shop that trains our military to prepare them for their career. The folks that I work with are mainly hard workers with a solid work ethic. Our areas have taken on a bigger and bigger load and have less people to do the job - a few are being treated for stress and depression and we expect it to get much worse when sequestration triggers - I still want it to happen to induce as much pain as possible and start to wake people up, even if it results in me losing my job. I’m 60, but know I can find some way to make a few bucks and keep my wife in a home instead of moving into our cars. The problem is that we all get lumped into the same ugly pot as those who consider their pay to be a right even if they opt out of working for it.
"Unlike the cruel Bush, who demanded that you stand, I require only that you kneel."
Sad thing about Obamacare is that it costs more but will deliver much less. Health care workers will see themselves losing jobs and taking pay cuts. In the end they will be nothing more than glorified government workers providing services to people who despise them and feel entitled to their skill and labor.
I hear you, Trebb. I am a Federal worker also. I used to be a defense contractor, and I am a retiree from the USAF. I am extremely grateful to have this job, because I believe God gave it to me after my wife was diagnosed with bone cancer. I make enough to get by now that she is no longer working, and we have used it to foster/adopt three beautiful kids. Yes it would be nice to get paid a little higher wage, but I understand the times. I will never, ever join the union, and neither will my co-workers who are hard-working, dedicated ex-military just like me.
Really...I’ve never worked for the government so had no idea. Hmmm.
What didn’t make sense to me is how she doesn’t pay taxes. I was told she has a bunch of LLCs.
Unless you are in law enforcement, a normal federal retirement is 30 years. Fed employees also have pretty normal health coverage. 30% of total premiums, 20% of bills, up to a family cap of $5000. Share things get expensive is in retirement. Fed employees keep thei medical benefits after retirement until they hit Medicare eligibility. An FBI agent is forced to retire at 57 and then draws his retirement check plus that medical benefit until he goes on Medicare. Nominally his retirement would be 34% of his last 3 years averaged.
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