Posted on 11/20/2012 11:25:03 PM PST by Abiotic
The Federal-Postal Coalition -- a group representing more than two dozen federal employee unions -- pleaded with Congress on Monday to spare their members in any deal related to the "fiscal cliff."
Federal workers, the coalition wrote in a letter, have contributed more than their fair share toward reducing the debt and are the only group that has been targeted so heavily.
“Federal and postal employees and their families are hardworking, middle-class Americans who are struggling during these tough times just like other Americans,” the group wrote. “No other group has been asked to financially contribute the way they have, and it is time our nation’s leaders found other ways to reduce the deficit than continually taking from those who have dedicated their lives to public service.”
According to the coalition, federal employees have funded $60 billion in budget savings in 2011 and 2012 as a result of their ongoing pay freeze and an additional $28 billion in savings will be derived from the freeze extension through March 2013.
Federal workers also contributed $15 billion toward the budget in 2011 when the contribution rate toward retirement pensions was raised to 2.3 percent for new employees.
Top Democratic lawmakers on committees related to the federal workforce told Government Executive last week that they would like to leave federal-employee benefits out of any potential debt deal. After President Obama’s reelection, top federal unions said they were confident their members would not be targeted in such a deal and a pay raise would be instituted.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...
Would these be the federal workers that owe billions in unpaid income taxes? Help my memory out here.
Hmmmm. I contribute 100% to my retirement fund.
Waaah.
Boo Frickin’ Hoo
Gander/Goose
GoesAround/ComesAround
World’s-Smallest-Violin
Life’sabitch
Just like the risk of a losing hand for a gambler, or a market crash for a broker, one of the hazards of a public-sector job is that you live and die by the budget. The perqs are there to make up for it; as a private-sector worker, I had nothing like the retirement plans, healthcare options, and seniority promotions that public workers get.
They won the election.
They’ll get their way.
Have a nice day. :)
No doubt it’s indispensible to the national weal to have all those mail order catalogues and supermarket circulars stuffing citizens’ mail boxes.
It might not be the rate but the shear number of federal employees. Productivity increases would be nice and cuts in those dopey web sites advertising their greatness would help too.
They bleed the taxpayer ‘til he dies of blood loss.
When they can’t get any more blood from him they curse him out for being so inconsiderate of their needs.
Fed “workers” should be Top. Of. The. Cost-Saving. List.
10% across the board cuts. EVERY organization can manage through a 10% personnel cut.
Wonder how many non-defense related government positions have been cut over the past four years?
Federal workers have us on the hook for their health, pensions, and early retirements until they die. But thats not enough
The perqs are there to make up for it; as a private-sector worker, I had nothing like the retirement plans, healthcare options, and seniority promotions that public workers get.
Damn. Sorry about that. It is such a shame that life gives you choices and you seem to make the wrong ones. Was it that you could not get hired with the federal government? Sorry about that.
Let them out. Close their offices. Sell their computers and iphones. Get rid of over 50% of civilian government workers.
They usually have three things on their desks: their feet and a box of Hostess Twinkies.
Many of them are twinkies.
“Federal workers also contributed $15 billion toward the budget in 2011...”
Gov workers are NOT taxpayers.
Well said.
Would these be the federal workers that owe billions in unpaid income taxes? Help my memory out here.
Mainly it’s the Federal workers that write new regulations faster than the lawyers can read them. They’re also the ones that vote heavily Democrat.
Shut down the postal service and let FedEx and UPS battle over the mail.
LLS
A civil war between The Right and The Left. That’s, probably, where we are all heading towards.
I don't owe any taxes and I'm a Federal worker who earns his pay. I understand the sentiments but it's disturbingly left-wing style blanket coverage in the way it gets "reported/commented on" in the comments.
They voted for him, they can have him.
Boo-hoo, blood-suckers. At least 25% of the federal workforce could be laid off and no one would know it. It is just another welfare scam, only it pays much better than the others.
Frankly, for me, it can’t happen soon enough. I do not see any way we can coexist with the Left. I would prefer it be without violence, but if not, oh well.
For those who remember the old Soviet Union, it was a grim place — at least for average citizens. But not so for those in government. Contrary to the official ideals of equality and a classless society that the ruling communist regime espoused, the USSR created a privileged class of party members inside government — the nomenklatura.
This semipermanent bureaucracy earned higher incomes, got better health care, ate better food and had greater job security than average Russians, the much-despised proletarians. Today, our bloated government seems, in significant ways, to be creating this same dynamic.
All us private sector folks can sell our foreclosure homes and move into an apartment so the public sector can get a raise,retire at 55 with 80% of their highest salary, and move into our old homes.
“Gov workers are NOT taxpayers.”
Not sure what that’s supposed to mean, I’m a federal employee and I pay my taxes every year.
Everyone is on the chopping block.
You are paid with tax money.
So the fact that you pay taxes (as my wife does as a teacher), is a bit odd. Your salary, and my bride’s, comes from taxes.
There was a congressmen years ago that suggested that federal salaries be adjusted to what the actual take home amount was, and then don’t charge them federal income tax. Since the money spent to process the returns made it a net loss.
I think he meant that Federal workers are paid with private taxpayer dollars. Therefore, the "taxes" paid by federal employees are nothing more than returning some of the private taxpayer dollars to the government.
OK you clarified yourself. Anyone know if the EBT folks pay taxes?
Also fyi, I am on my third year of a pay freeze, no COLA, no bonus of any kind, nothing. Maybe that's the way it should be. I've been in federal service for 23 years and make around 68K. I don't think that's an outrageous annual salary do you?
FU you leeching, thieving pieces of S**T. I hope you all lose your jobs, starting with the Postal “workers.”
the GS 11 and up employees are the biggest drag on the Treasury and the trend has been towards more and more higher paid goobermint workers. The Federal worker bees under GS 7 retire with very meager income. Government Elite is the problem and the ranks are growing.
Yeah, I understand, but that really can’t be help can it?
Ive seen alot of frustration with regards to fed employees here on FR, some of it valid some not. I keep reading these comments on how much we make. It’s not always accurate. When the media reports it the folks I work with have no idea where these salary #s come from. maybe in DC but not where I work. lol
Without seeing your qualifications and job requirements, we have no way of knowing whether your salary is outrageous or not. Also, that $68k is your salary, right? How much additional do you receive P.A. in benefits?
I would imagine my benifits are comparable to anyones.
I’m afraid i cant provide details about what I do as i’m in the DOD. I know fed workers get a bad rap here (and sometimes rightfully so) but there are many like myself who work hard for the American taxpayer you can believe that. Do we have sluggo employees? Sure do. But not all.
Also, before anyone asks, I work nights and I’m on leave for Tgiving so don’t worry about why i’m on FR on WEDS morning. lol
It's likely that benefits would add another 40% to overall compensation.
FWIW, the FDIC gets it right: a small permanent staff, augmented by term employees to handle spikes in the workload. Several thousand people were hired back in 2008-2009 to handle the additional workload brought on by the financial crisis. They were hired under two year contracts, with an agency option for two additional years.
As the crisis is winding down, so is the FDIC workforce. Temporary offices in Irvine, CA and Schaumberg, IL have been closed, and the remaining work has been transferred to its regional office in Dallas. A third temporary office in Jacksonville will remain open through 1st quarter 2014.
The powers that be in DC would do well to analyze how well the system worked for the FDIC, ranked by its employees as the "Best Agency to Work For" in 2011.
I would not assume that your benefits are typical, as Federal workers receive on average far more than their private sector counterparts.
I’m sure you are a very hard worker and a good person. It’s unfortunate that all Federal workers get painted with the same brush, but that’s where we are due to the ridiculous growth and dominion of the Federal government over us Americans who are paying for it.
A 50% haircut of the Federal workforce would be a good start. The Postal service and Amtrak, in particular, should be liquidated, and a number of Departments eliminated entirely.
Yep, i guess that was my point all along, that happens alot on FR, it's always kinda bugged me and I've never mentioned my career status before today. As for me I am in the DoD supporting the navy Warfighter and trust me the American taxpayer is getting their $$ worth. As for my bennies, I have blue cross federal, your right i dont know exactly but i cant imagine my ins. is that much better than anyone elses. As far as leave, we do get compensated pretty well but when I retire I cannot sell back much of it. As I said I am on a 3rd year pay freeze no COLA, no bonus of any kind, I'm not complaining but if anybody thinks I'm spending three weeks a year in the Caribbean their wrong, i dont work in the GSA.lol. As for being a good person, I hope so, I am as Conservative a person as I know how to be if that means anything and I hope it does.
Hmmmm....I wonder why some of the wealthiest countries in the USA are surrounding WDC?
Depends.
Most don’t, beyond SS and sales tax. But I do know a few who are on EBT that are farmers and pay quite a bit in land taxes.
They are scamming the system, and I don’t have a lot of respect for them.
That is fairly close to what I make as an engineer (in the Midwest, so I suspect my cost of living is cheaper than yours).
We haven’t had a pay freeze in a while, but I have taken pay cuts in the past. It is part of the game, and not a fun part either.
But I am fairly confident the benefits you have are a lot better than mine. I suspect you have a pension, and I have never had that option (my wife does also, but we are planning on Illinois to go bankrupt long before she sees a dime). And the health care for government workers is usually better, though that depends.
My point is that when the hard times hit, all need to be on the chopping block. I have been through it in two companies, and it is never easy. Once I left right before the ax fell on my position (thanks to a good manager who told me what was happening six months in advance).
Thank you for making the effort.
Out of all the federal workers I know personally (including my husband), only one is a loon as far as politics goes. The loon amongst them always votes for the weirdest third-party candidate there is and won’t vote for dems.
The rest of them vote for the closest thing to conservatives they can find — every election — and they refuse to join the union. The unions have lost many members over the last decade or so, and their crime bosses are desperately in search of other businesses to target, since they can no longer depend on federal employees to be loyal to them.
That’s easy to say now that the feds have almost destroyed the private sector and pay their special worker bees with money stolen from others.
Who knew they would flood the country with 40 million government dependents and make a lifestyle out of handouts?
I voted for smaller gov all my life and was niave enough at one point to believe it. I even believed that takers would never outnumber the makers without a collapse. But you make a good point, we were all dummies for not getting on the freebie bandwagon a long time ago.
'Federal Workers to Congress: Leave Us Out of Deficit Deal''Federal workers' is an oxymoron. 99.986524% of them aren't worth a crap. I saw that in person when I was on site for 18 months in a Gubmint bldg we were doing HVAC mechanical upgrades on (back during Klintoon's years and *his* gubmint shutdown).
The remaining .013476% of Fed workers are those like our Mail Man who not only is a "worker" but cares about the job he does. He'll actually get out of his truck and deliver to our door anything that's large and could possibly get damaged, ruined, or bent, if he put it in our mailbox as his 'job description' requires.
We also try to tip him at Christmas if we have an extra $20 laying around. But under Barry that's getting harder to do.
As far as being on the chopping block, the fed gov does need downsizing, but with what we have in the Whitehouse I don't see that happening any time soon. I am proud and privileged to work for the American taxpayer supporting the US navy warfighter, there are many areas of fed gov that need cutting but (this may sound a little selfish) not where I work. What we do where I work is directly related to the freedom of this country, at least whatever the Whitehouse will allow.
V_TWIN
Many of us here served a career in the military. We know the DOD. We know who does what, where and how well. We also know GS scales.
We spent an entire career serving this great nation while at the same time fighting career bureaucrats (GS) as they went about their business of finding reasons they can't do something.
The worst GS examples of this approach are found in DC, to be sure.
At any rate, bottom line, saying you are in the DOD and can't talk about what you do is not really accurate. Every DOD organization and job, with very rare and limited exceptions, even those in the “black” part of the budget, has an unclassified description—how about yours?
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