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Bush Cuts Pay Raises for Federal Workers, Citing National Emergency
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Posted on 11/29/2002 4:51:57 PM PST by Sub-Driver
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To: Sub-Driver
I don't beleive that this affects TVA employees. FYI
21
posted on
11/29/2002 5:33:54 PM PST
by
meyer
To: Sub-Driver
Well Jennifer Loven must have pleased her liberal masters today. She's gone and zinged us conservatives but good.
I mean, it's not enough to say this is a salary freeze, which it is. Instead this whacky liberal journalist has to invent the notion of "slashing" a raise.
On top of a fat 3.1% raise in a depressed economy, federal employees would have gotten a bonus based on the increase in the corresponding private-sector wage. And the fact that they won't get this extra increase is cause for hysteria among the big-government liberal crowd.
Hoping to teach our mean ol' president a lesson, Jennifer blasts Bush throughout the article. It's "[a] blow to federal workers" -- Oh no, don't touch the fat federal bureaucracy!
Since the White House "quietly released the letter...[during] a long holiday weekend", Jennifer must have stumbled on Watergate 2002. Perhaps Jennifer wants the White House to kick back, relax and stop working during Thanksgiving -- ample fodder for a scathing AP expose on the lethargy of turkey-stuffed White House staffers, no doubt.
And the best part is buried deep in the article, where Jennifer embarrassingly includes the fact that these "slashed" increases almost never go into effect anyway.
In light of these facts, let me suggest a more accurate headline:
Federal Employees Won't Get Raise Which They Normally Wouldn't Get Anyway
22
posted on
11/29/2002 5:39:05 PM PST
by
ctn
To: PhiKapMom
How does this affect Wage Grade Federal Employees?
Are all Federal Employees getting the 3.1%?
And I'll take the 4.1% military pay raise!
To: anniegetyourgun
BTW, only in D.C. is an anticipated increase which has never been implemented, considered "a cut"....."We have decreased the rate of increase."
To: ctn
My Chosen Headline:
2003 Govt Salaries Up 200% vs. Inflation
To: PhiKapMom
Federal Govt salaries have skyrocketed. My guess is 10s of thousands make six figures. Just 15 years ago, people worked for the govt so they could get experience to move to the private sector and make more money. Not anymore, people now hook up with the private sector to gain experience in hopes of getting a cushy govt job down the road. The Government claims that they need to offer competitive wages and overboard retirement plans to attract the best and brightest. No, the best and brightest need to be in the private sector.
To: muawiyah
In all reality the only federal employees who should be paid at all are postal workers. At least there you have folks doing something other people pay for. Right?
Run that salary schedule down to zero and the work will still get done as folks like you will volunteer your time no doubt.
Maybe we could make government jobs like being on a jury - they just call you in, give you $15 per day, and you get to make the big decision
I really don't think that's what anniegetyourgun was advocating. She's simply pointing out, correctly, that there's a lot of waste in government, particularly in some of the more rogue and sometimes unnecessary departments. I work there and I see at least a moderate amount of waste every day. Granted, there's waste in virtually every bureaucracy (I spent 20+ years in private industry), but it seems to be prevalent in those areas that have no fear of competition. That would include many areas of dot-gov.
27
posted on
11/29/2002 5:45:23 PM PST
by
meyer
To: RobFromGa
Good one!
Only the ultra-liberal union sympathizers at the AP would ask why federal bureaucrats are "only" getting a 3.1% raise when average Americans are being thrown out of their jobs all over the country.
28
posted on
11/29/2002 5:48:22 PM PST
by
ctn
To: Sub-Driver
Guess them federalista airport baggage handlers are gonna have to put off buying that new caddy till next year :o)
Stay Safe !
29
posted on
11/29/2002 5:48:26 PM PST
by
Squantos
To: mystery-ak
As far as I know all Civil Service GS are getting a 3.1% and the military 4.1%. I really don't know how they do the raises for wage grade but I know it is a different system and not even sure if it is done at the same time as GS and the military.
To: RobFromGa
2003 Govt Salaries Up 200% vs. InflationDepends on what you mean by "inflation".
31
posted on
11/29/2002 5:57:14 PM PST
by
meyer
To: Archie Bunker on steroids
You are so right! I worked there in the days where the cost of health insurance raise was more than the pay raise which meant you made less after the pay raise.
Seven years ago a GS-13, Step 10, made around $64,000 -- now a GS-12, Step 10 makes over $70,000! The Clinton years saw a huge increase in pay for GS employees.
To: PhiKapMom
Seven years ago a GS-13, Step 10, made around $64,000 -- now a GS-12, Step 10 makes over $70,000! The Clinton years saw a huge increase in pay for GS employees.I'm not civil service so its hard to make a relationship between these pay grades and other jobs outside of the civil service protection. Do you know of a web site or somewhere where the general qualifications are listed for specific grades?
33
posted on
11/29/2002 6:04:18 PM PST
by
meyer
To: meyer
Rest assured that "anniegetyourgun" really was advocating not paying folks to work for the government.
Some folks have a faint hope they hold onto dearly that if they can just make government employment undesirable (by, for example, not paying the help), then the government will just go away.
I'd stop delivery on her welfare, retirement and merchandise rebate checks if that were possible.
34
posted on
11/29/2002 6:06:21 PM PST
by
muawiyah
To: Sub-Driver
God Bless GWB!
Stick it to the Democrat-machine AFSCME stooges.
To: meyer
To: PhiKapMom
I'm a federal employee working for the VA. I'm not going to complain about a 3.1% pay increase. But the facts are that last years pay increase was almost entirely negated by the increase in my contribution for health insurance. My contribution went up 35% in 2002. For 2003 my contribution is going up 20%. These big increases + inflation mean my actual salary is quite stagnant. The only thing keeping me from the private sector is the excellent time off I value.
To: PhiKapMom
$70K sounds like a lot of money, and it would be a lot of money in most parts of the country, but it's not a lot of money in the DC metro area.
When my husband first started working at the Patent Office in 1988, he was making $27K, with a Master's degree in engineering and almost ten year's experience. We lived two hours away from his work and paid $1000 per month for our house. He was commuting four hours a day, and I was baking bread because it was cheaper than buying it.
When all the federal jobs were shut down during the Clinton Administration, he still was called in to work because the Patent Office actually makes money for the government, much more than it costs.
Fourteen years later, the pay is better, but we know a lot of people who live two or more hours away because they don't have the additional education required to get the better jobs.
The only way people with low income jobs, e.g., cleaning people, maintenance people, can afford to live here is to live with several families in the same house, like they were still living in the Third World.
I know it's fashionable to hate the federal government, but who is going to protect you from Al Qaeda? Bill Gates? Jeff Bezos? Ted Turner?
To: muawiyah
Some folks have a faint hope they hold onto dearly that if they can just make government employment undesirable (by, for example, not paying the help), then the government will just go away.Well, quite frankly, there's some parts of government that ought to go away. But, there are some things that even I, reluctantly, think that government does a good job of taking care of. I don't think that a private enterprise would have built the interstate highway system, for example. Yes, private roads would have been built, but not as a system unless the government stepped in and utilized eminent domain to acquire properties for the private industry (though investor-owned utilities did enjoy a weak version of emenent domain for the purpose of serving the public and did fairly well).
I left private industry after 21 years to work for the government a couple of years ago. I'll stay for at least 3 more years (until my pension is vested) and probably longer. The part of government I'm in is run almost like a private company. It pays "en-leu-of" taxes to localities, it is self-supporting, and it is operated like its competitors with a board of directors, president, and the like. We get merit pay as opposed to civil service raises, we put money into social security, and we pay the same money for our product that everyone else does. Plus, occasionally, a congresscritter pops in and says "hello".
39
posted on
11/29/2002 6:16:14 PM PST
by
meyer
To: PhiKapMom
Thanks much!!!
40
posted on
11/29/2002 6:16:58 PM PST
by
meyer
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