Dems vow: No more cuts for federal workers ("discrimination" against RAT voters)

The Hill ^ | 2/29/12 | Mike Lillis

[Libloather]

Dems vow: No more cuts for federal workers
By Mike Lillis - 02/29/12 07:21 PM ET

Leading Democrats charged Republicans this week with "discrimination" against federal workers amid Congress's struggle to cut deficit spending.

The Democrats said a series of federal pay cuts – most recently as part of the payroll-tax package – pile the deficit-reduction burden on one group of Americans while the rest of the country gets a free pass. The lawmakers – all of whom represent districts laden with federal workers – are vowing to oppose any future legislation that includes cuts in federal compensation.

"'Bureaucrats' is used as an epithet by too many [in Congress]. It is used as a pejorative," Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the Democratic whip, said Wednesday during a Capitol Hill rally of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). "We are the best civil service in the world … Unfortunately, we have too many people who don't respect those who give their service to the public."

Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland said the fight over federal compensation is part of a much larger partisan war over the preservation of the middle-class. Cardin, who was a member of the payroll-tax conference committee, accused Republicans of wanting "to turn back the clock" on workers' rights.

"They want to take [us] back to the 19th century," Cardin said.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) suggested hundreds of NTEU members were "courageous" to visit the Capitol, which she characterized as "the scene of the crime against federal workers today."

"The Republicans have created a virtual piggybank containing your federal pay and your federal pensions – to be robbed at will," Norton charged. "We're here to say to Republicans, 'This piggybank is not yours.'"

As part of this month's bipartisan payroll-tax deal, GOP leaders insisted on a provision requiring federal employees hired after 2012 to contribute 3.1 percent of their annual salaries to their pensions — a 2.3-point jump over current levels. The provision is estimated to save roughly $15 billion over the next decade – money Congress tapped to offset an extension of emergency unemployment benefits through the end of the year.

An initial House-passed GOP bill would also have affected current federal workers, but push-back from Hoyer, Cardin and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), another member of the payroll tax conference panel, caused GOP negotiators to scale back the provision.

The pension cuts come on the heels of a two-year freeze in federal pay, estimated to save taxpayers roughly $60 billion over a decade.

Advocates for federal workers say they're being singled out unfairly.

"The time has come for shared sacrifice, and we have already made our contribution," NTEU President Colleen Kelley said Wednesday. "These cuts need to stop."

Cardin noted that President George W. Bush inherited a projected budget surplus in 2001 and turned it into a $1.2 trillion projected deficit eight years later – largely the result of unpaid wars and unfunded tax cuts.

"It was not the federal workers who caused this deficit," Cardin said.

"Every time we need to find money to solve our problems, they keep coming back to you," echoed Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.). "It's almost like going out to dinner with a group of friends and you're always being asked to pick up the check."

Fueling the debate, a January study from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that federal employees, on average, are paid roughly 2 percent more than comparable private-sector workers – a figure that jumps to 16 percent when health and other benefits are considered.

Republicans pounced, using the report to support their federal compensation cuts.

"While millions of Americans continue to struggle with stagnant wages and high unemployment, government bureaucrats in Washington continue to enjoy significant advantages over those whose tax dollars finance their compensation," Rep. Paul Ryan, (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, said in response to the CBO report.

The Democrats on Wednesday defended the pay discrepancy. The problem is not that federal workers are overcompensated, they said, but that too many private-sector employees are denied fair wages and benefits.

"We're trying to give them a living wage – how awful that is," Hoyer quipped.

"Let's correct what they're doing in the private sector," Cardin added, "[not] race to the bottom."

Virginia Democratic Reps. Jim Moran and Gerald Connolly also addressed the union crowd Wednesday.

[Crazieman]

Dittos, I’m a postal clerk. The crap I see every single day amazes.

[Doctor 2Brains]

What do you think, genius?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

No.

But that is ok, according to some on this board all military retirees are millionaires.

[Greenpees]

...But they have no problem raising retired military medical premiums by nearly 100%

[samadams2000]

Whomever is keeping the list please make sure that clown hoyer is in the top 10.

[Reily]

I guess you do!

[bimboeruption]

America is Reginald Denny and the Democrats are the L.A. Four.

[Doctor 2Brains]

That’s cause you’re so smart, AND a government loving liberal, I might add.

[Reily]

yeah that's the ticket!....go with that!

[Doctor 2Brains]

Yeah, the 1st time I was in, I was politically unaware, and doing NOTHING but chasing girls, and I was working for DOD, so I didn’t notice much, but now!!!! Good God! If you ain’t worked for the G, I simply don’t believe that you can grasp the horror of it all.

[Doctor 2Brains]

YOU ARE A LIBERAL. You might be a liberal if you get upset when somebody refers to govermnent workers as bums. YOU ARE A LIBERAL.

[Reily]

You got the brains! In fact you got two!
So it must be true!
You am I to argue.

[Doctor 2Brains]

That’s actually pretty good. ‘Course I’m on my 3rd beer...

[goodnesswins]

YES...entitlements are the problem...but, what would happen to all those FED employees who FEED the entitled their bennies, and take care of them, and manage them, and administrate them, and PUSH their programs so there are MORE entitlements....????

[Reily]

Should be “Who am I to argue!”

too tired to continue the argument in any cogent form

[muawiyah]

The theory is that if you whack the employees then the government can't spend money.

That, of course, is a remarkably stupid belief. Social Security, for instance, is operated mostly by the computers!

Now, are entitlements the problem? Depends on what you mean by an entitlement.

The problem is SPENDING.

[Reily]

The entitlement programs that are going to eventually eat up all future federal budgets like a giant demonic pacman is social security, medicare, medicaid, student loans as well as all the federal guarantees such as on mortgages, etc. None of these were advocated corporately by federal employees (meaning as a group!). I guess AFMSCE does advocate them now, but most of these have been in place long before there was any federal employee's union. These looming economic Armageddons were sold as “solutions” (usually to minor or nonexistent problems!) to the public at large and embraced for the most part enthusiastically.
.
All this ranting people do here about government employees I guess makes the ranters feel good, but the problem is the “something-for-nothing” views of a majority of the voters. Primarily its as Pogo put it, "We have met the enemy and it is us!"

[vette6387]

“I watched the MD delegation defend high living off the government LIVE on C-Span. I was enraged at their arrogance, their air of superiority over the rest of America.”

And we all thought Illinois is bad! The People’s Republic of Maryland it essentially Washington D.C.’s bedroom. Take the USPO. They need to lay off at least 250,000 people! Unfortunately, those who are RIFed, will continue to live off the rest of us on pensions/medical benefits that are way out of line until they pass.

[vette6387]

“So 1.8% of the population (in WA State) gets gold plated coverage and everyone else gets ObamaCare.”

But not for long!! And we thought things here in California were bad! In reality, this is probably the same metric you will find in most of the states. It is unsustainable as you pointed out. The states will go bankrupt irrespective of what the Constitution says. When the money is gone, it’s gone!

[robowombat]

I have never understood the presumption that feds are donkey voters that politicians of both parties and most Freepers seem to take for granted. Something like 70% of feds work for DOD, Homeland Security and Justice. These are not agencies that harbor many social justice liberals. The overwhelming majority of feds I worked with for both Army and USAF were middle aged white males and they did were mostly in no sense liberals. The fed si-called unions mentioned here are joke organizations with no collective bargaining rights that matter in any way. The Dems don't want real unionization of the federal government anymore than the GOP. This is more inside the beltway theatrics.