Hidden disaster in new budget: Demonic plot to raid pensions

Salon ^ | December 11, 2013 | David Dayen

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The entitlement mentality is stunning.

I particularly liked the outrage about not being able to hire extra help to make up the time after the "shut down."

[Olog-hai]

Funny how they’re using religious terms with respect to said entitlements.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

These people don’t see us as a nation working together, they see us as hosts meant to feed them. There is no pulling together to get though this, it’s all about us versus them.

[Olog-hai]

Let us eat cake, part douze?

[rlmorel]

"...2013 has not been a pleasant year if you work for the federal government. You’ve been subject to pay freezes, furloughs and shutdowns. One of you got yelled at by a Tea Party Republican at the World War II memorial. And if Congress passes the budget deal announced Tuesday night by Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray – a big if – you will get a final Christmas present: You’ll have to pay more into your pension, an effective wage cut that just adds to the $114 billion, with a “B,” federal employees have already given back to the government in the name of deficit reduction..."

BOO EFFING HOO.

Remind me again how many federal employees have lost their jobs, and how the number of federal employees has gone down.

I know there are good and honorable people in that sector, but reading this whiny drivel just pisses me off.

[DaveA37]

“You’ll have to pay more into your pension, an effective wage cut”....

Explain to me EXACTLY how putting money away for you retirement is considered a ‘pay cut”. It is nothing more than me putting away part of my income for a future time, all the while it should be earning interest. “Budget cuts”, “pay cuts”, “reduced spending” are all play on words.

The gubmint workers are earning (I say that loosly) far more than those who actually create/build products towards our GNP instead of shuffling papers. Stop the bitching and get back to work.

[Pollster1]

2013 has not been a pleasant year if you work for the federal government . . . One of you got yelled at by a Tea Party Republican at the World War II memorial.

Interesting way of reporting on the feds closing an outdoor memorial that is normally not staffed.

[tanknetter]

federal employees have sacrificed $114 billion in pay cuts over the past three years, an average of over $50,000 per employee

Riiiiighht.

That's what? $17,000 per year? Clearly the disproportionate impact is at the higher levels of the GS scale. It just goes to show how top-heavy the government is.

[tanknetter]

Explain to me EXACTLY how putting money away for you retirement is considered a ‘pay cut”. It is nothing more than me putting away part of my income for a future time, all the while it should be earning interest. “Budget cuts”, “pay cuts”, “reduced spending” are all play on words.

The issue is that it's compulsory. I can easily imagine the howls of outrage around here if part of the deal was to raise EVERYONE'S Social Security "contribution" by a percent or two. People would be screaming bloody murder about how it drops their net income, yelling about all the negative economic impacts of taking the ability to decide where to spend that money out of the hands of individuals and putting it into the hands of nameless/faceless bureaucrats.

Conservatives don't like being told what to do with the money they themselves earn. We need to be consistent and then apply that same standard to others as well.

[Zenjitsuman]

We the tax payers are footing Cadillac pensions for civil servants with far higher payout than in the private sector.

Additionally, they can retire earlier than most not working for the government, and go get another job and pension.

With all this red deficit ink when will we see pensions cut down to what we can afford instead of stealing from our kids to pay for this unfair public pension system benefits for the few.

[arderkrag]

But but but, don't you see? These are the bad guys and therefore we have to be giddy that they are being told what to do! We can only be outraged when it's them doing it to us! YEEEAAAHHH!

/sarc, obviously.

[arasina]

One of you got yelled at by a Tea Party Republican at the World War II memorial.

Waaaah!

[skinkinthegrass]

!

[Salvavida]

I've some street cred on this. I was a fed employee, now a contractor:

Congress needs to make it easier to fire federal employees. Plain and simple. They do not need to give back any money or be furloughed. The INSPECTOR GENERALS need to be overhauled and brought into accountability with the GAO. They are the worst. Good intentions mean nothing. When you screw up and cost the taxpayers money because of negligence or incompetence: you are fired.

[ought-six]

“There is no pulling together to get though this, it’s all about us versus them.”

In some quarters the term is “irreconcilable differences.” In any event, the American people are so polarized that reconciliation is no longer possible.

[SES1066]

The threat to a dignified end of life is now coming to government workers, who explicitly forgo wages in exchange for the promise of a modest retirement benefit.

This statement is the myth that will not die, those poor deserving bureaucrats who, like Bob Cratchit, slave away in dank, cold cubicles for the good of the country! The research is overwhelming, between pay and benefits, government workers are far better compensated than their private sector counterparts. However, you will not EVER hear this from the Union shills, BIG SURPRISE!

[ought-six]

85% of the federal workforce is wholly unnecessary.

[agere_contra]

+1 to that.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

You totally nailed it in post #3.

[CPONuke]

Except in your example one might expect to have an increased rate of return if you put more money away. In this case, more will be put in but the same will come out on the back end.