Saturday, January 28, 2012

Cutting federal pay

This is an excerpt from my commentary on the State of the Union Address:

Could we have some explanation of why cutting the incomes of federal employees is a fair idea? Sure we can do it, but that doesn't mean it's right to do it. As long as there's one highly profitable industry that gets a tax break, or one wealthy citizen who is not shouldering a fair tax burden, why should we cut the salary of a worker simply because that person is a federal employee? Doing this sends the message that somehow working for our  -- our! -- government is not quite valuable. This is part of the Republican propaganda position that "government is the problem." Government is the problem mostly for people who want to cheat or endanger the rest of us. Government was not the problem when we fought WWII or protected our elderly with Social Security and Medicare. Government was not a problem when we abolished child labor and sweatshops or when we cleaned up our air, rivers, lakes and harbors. Working for our government and being paid a decent and fair wage for doing so is a very honorable thing for an American to do. Why should we be freezing  government wages simply because we can?

2 comments:

  1. Why should we cut salaries for federal employees? For the same reason that I have been getting paid less over the last few years...my employer can't afford to pay me what they used to! Very simple. When the deficit is 8-9% of GDP, you need to learn how to live below your means.

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  2. All of you Federal worker and union Haters better wake up! Many private businesses use federal, state and local Government pay as well as union pay and and benefit scales to determine the same for their employees. If Mr. Big can effectively eliminate the federal, state and local workforce as well as unions, private workers pay/benefits will be drastically reduced. Take a look at Wisconsin and Ohio!

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