Military版 - smoking g: 08 to freeze federal pay |
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发帖数: 901 | 1 WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Monday called for freezing the pay
of 2 million federal employees, saying the move is the first of many
difficult decisions that must be made to slash the nation's mounting
deficits.
"The hard truth is that getting this deficit under control is going to
require some broad sacrifice, and that sacrifice must be shared by the
employees of the federal government," Obama said.
The two-year freeze would apply to all civilian federal employees, including
those working at the Department of Defense, but would not affect military
personnel. The freeze is expected to save more than $5 billion in savings
over two years, $28 billion over five years and more than $60 billion over
10 years, White House officials said.
Federal pay is determined by Congress, and lawmakers must approve Obama's
call for a freeze.
Congress is not covered by Obama's order, but lawmakers voted last April to
freeze their pay, with the House and Senate opting to forgo an automatic $1,
600 annual cost-of-living increase. House members and senators now are paid
$174,000 a year. Their last pay increase was $4,700 a year at beginning of
2009.
The president's pay of $400,000 a year was fixed by Congress in January 2001
. It has not changed since then.
While Obama said the federal employee salary freeze was necessary to put the
nation on sound fiscal footing, he also said that he didn't reach the
decision lightly.
"This is not just a line item on a federal ledger," he said. "These are
people's lives."
The savings from the pay freeze make only a small dent in the nation's $1
trillion-plus budget deficit. But with voters voicing their anger over
Washington's spending during the midterm elections, even a symbolic gesture
would show the White House got the message.
Obama and bipartisan congressional leaders will meet at the White House
Tuesday for the first time since Republicans gained control of the House and
increased their strength in the Senate during the midterm elections. Obama
said he hopes the move to freeze federal pay sets a serious tone for the
meetings.
"We're going to have to budge on some deeply held positions, and compromise
for the good of the country," Obama said.
California Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight
Committee, said that while the pay freeze was "long overdue," the president
and congressional leaders should take additional steps to reduce spending,
including imposing a federal hiring freeze of non-security employees.
The co-chairmen of Obama's bipartisan deficit commission have proposed a
three-year freeze in pay for most federal employees as part of its plan to
reduce the nation's growing deficit. The commission's proposal also
suggested cuts to Social Security benefits and higher taxes for millions of
Americans to stem the flood of red ink that they say threatens the nation's
very future. The popular child tax credit and mortgage interest deduction
also would be eliminated.
The commission's final report is due to be released later this week.
Shortly after taking office in January 2009, Obama froze salaries of top
White House aides. He proposed extending that freeze to political appointees
across the government in last year's budget, and also eliminated bonuses
for political appointees.
The pay freeze would not affect bonuses or step increases for federal
employees.
Labor leaders assailed Obama's decision as bad for the economy and the
middle class.
"We need to invest in creating jobs, not undermining the ones we have," AFL-
CIO president Richard Trumka said in a statement.
John Gage, president of the 600,000-member American Federation of Government
Employees, called the decision "a slap at working people."
"Working people's wages are not the issue with this deficit or what is going
on in our country," Gage said. "To symbolically hit at federal employees I
think is just wrong."
Gage said the White House was using federal workers as scapegoats for the
nation's deficit problems. He said the move would not really save as much as
the White House claims because federal employees often get just a fraction
of projected raises. Federal workers received a 1.9 percent pay increase
this year. | p******u
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