I am under the impression that most gov't employees don't get paid a lot. I think conservatives are so pissed off at the gov't that they're taking it out on the people who serve the public. This is starting to look like Star Wars Clone Wars series. You have to think maybe we are entering a dark age. It may seem to be the case. nonetheless. I don't think I'm going back home. I am ashamed to be from the same country of people with such loser attitudes, and an inability to slow down,take a deep breath, and assess the situation properly. Being emotional all the time isn't going to help, and now I see why the intelligent people of any society either high tails it out, or they step up to the plate and become leaders, and right now the US has extremely poor leadership. meanwhile this may free uo jibs fir college grads.. it says a lot though because most agencies are understaffed and overworked. this is just to please a public that thinks more people should struggle worse than them.. Americans what happened to my America?

The government is running on fumes and has been for years. Government employee's, congress and white house included, do not deserve pay raises and this freeze should have been implemented years ago. Most people working in the private sector have had their salaries frozen for some years now. All while health care cost rose, and retirement accounts lost value. People who were laid off and are now re-entering the workforce for much lower salaries than they were previously worth. This is the pain that the private tax paying sector has felt for years. Government employee's should share in that pain, if for no other reason than to motivate people to collectively work towards a solution that results in a healthier economy for all Americans. What really needs to happen, in the private sector, is Corporate executives and Board members need to be prohibited from collecting bonus's at the end of the year if they have not been able to lift hiring and/or salary freezes for the employee's they manage. If you can't afford to give your employee's at least a COLA at the end of the year, you really don't deserve millions of dollars in bonus's for good performance.

To the government employee's I say, Suck it up!

Government employees don't pay taxes?

News to me.

So what? I haven't had a pay raise in 2 yrs either. It sucks, but so does the economy. Belt tightening is what happens when the funds dry up. Also, what's the point in mentioning that this "only" saves $1 billion? That's how budgets are balanced: a percentage here, a percentage there. Hopefully someday soon the feds will start addressing the ridiculous amounts we're overspending on military occupations, but at least this is a step in the right direction.

This is obviously just to get federal employees who meet the minimum age to retire. Most federal employees get a retirement based on the average of their last 3 years pay. This gives people no incentive to hang around for another year or two to increase their retirement, so they retire. When they retire, the federal government can hire that many people to replace them. Unemployment goes down and jobs are "created". Brilliant strategy. Reagan did basically the same thing.

Federal workers and the unions that represent them are right to be distrustful of such a proposal.

Consider that many states have done the same things to their payrolls along with early retirement incentives, and the measures have proved ineffective. This is because they cannot cut payrolls past a certain point without services suffering - so in the short term, contractors are hired on to fill the gap.

Contractors are expensive, short term bandaid solutions. What makes them attractive is that you can fire them at will, rather than having to deal with a complex and restrictive set of guidelines.

More often than not resulting in the shuffling around of incompetent or underperforming staff coupled with this love of high-cost and short term outsourcing results in higher costs to the public.

Unions do not want an 'easy ride' for their members - all they're fighting for is a reasonable expectation to job security and a living wage. Why is this a bad thing?

It looks like a bad thing when in fact it isn't. The stark difference between private industry and the flagrant disregard with which most corporations treat their employees, and being on a state payroll and being treated by and large like a human being is what makes them look bad.

Until the attitude of corporate america is adjusted to where employees are viewed less as machines to be tweaked to the utter limit of what they can handle, then discarded when they stop taking in the kool-aid, this contrast will continue to cause a problem.

"reasonable expectation to job security and a living wage?"

Ha.

These people are in no danger of losing their jobs. And their living wage is more than enough. If you don't believe me, go visit the Social Security office and observe how hard they're working.

Besides the fact that you're an idiot, you have absolutely NO concept of what Federal workers go through on a daily basis. Many of those workers you mention are GS-5 & 6 workers, whose "living wage is $35,238 & $39,279" respectively per year (including locality pay). How can anyone in their right mind classify that as a living wage in ANY city let alone one of the MOST expensive metro areas in the country? But of course, you are going to say that no one forces them to take that job or that pay and you'd be right (for once in your ill-begotten life). Except that many of the people performing those jobs are not only veterans, but combat veterans to boot and if it were not for those jobs they'd have absolutely NO job to speak of. Lastly, most of the Federal agencies you speak of are severely understaffed and are forced to perform their mission with no where near enough resources to adequately serve the public. It is a miracle that they are able to do anything, let alone serve the public on a daily basis. Those under-appreciated, under-paid and ill-treated civilian workers not only perform their duties in most cases well, but in many cases better than the so-called private sector, with NO overtime pay, crappy & extremely expensive health care, no bereavement leave, little to no maternity leave, no long-term disability, etc, etc. Unlike the prima donnas that populate the U.S. Congress, they cannot simply vote themselves a pay raise and cannot even voice their personal opinion on political matters in the same way that private sector employees can. You wouldn't last 2 hours in one of those jobs, before you'd be home crying to mommy that you want to return to Minnesota or whatever other shitville you come from.

That's what I mean. The dissonance between what a federal or state worker is perceived to be like and the image people have in their minds of your typical private office worker (for example)

"You should just be glad we're offering you this job at $10k below what your salaryscale or market research website tells you"

"You should just be glad we're only cutting your benefits and not passing the full cost of insurance onto you"

"You should be glad we've saved you from the evil unions who will stop us all getting rich and wealthy"

"You should be glad they voted us another extension of tax cuts so our wealth can trickle down to you"

"you should be glad you're just getting written up for your 7 minutes lateness, and not fired"

The worst part is the problem is systemic, I don't for one minute believe that there's a bunch of people sitting in a smoky back room in Bilderberg or wherever plotting the eventual New World Order.

What I do believe is that the constant pressure of corporations to deliver value and the innate bias of wealth to concentrate has already reached a tipping point at the expense of the social contract. Granted, the west has long maintained an artificially high quality of life (heh) at the expense of much of the rest of the world, so maybe what we're seeing is the start of a necessary adjustment to a more stable equilibrium.

Ultimately, though, I'm just fed up to the back teeth of being quietly threatened every time I ask why everyone around me isn't getting paid what they're worth.

Who promises Social Security employees that they will be wealthy? Why is it wrong to expect you to pay a portion of your healthcare? (Who do you honestly expect to pay for it? While we're discussing this, who do you think is funding most of your public pension plan?) Why is being written up for showing up late a bad thing? (There's a very big difference between being abused in a Chinese sweatshop and being on-time for your American job.)

If you have a specific instance of someone not being paid a fair wage for their work that relates to this story, I'm willing to listen and sympathize. You have to realize that the woman quoted in the story is a federal employee. She is not in any danger of being paid or treated unfairly.

Who promises anyone they will be wealthy? Where did I say it's wrong to expect people to pay for their own healthcare? U mad? Because all you seem to have is a load of bluff and bluster without addressing any of the salient points in my responses.

Also who is funding most of the public pension plan? Because from your tone I would wager you have a very inaccurate idea about where the money comes from.

This lady is freaking out because Obama is "freezing federal wages" for two years, meaning the federal pay table is not going to adjust for inflation ...but federal employees will still get step increases and the salary increases that go with those movements in the pay table (unlike civilian pay freezes which mean your salary does not increase at all) So unless you're maxed out in your paygrade, this is not really a big deal. But, ZOMG NO FEDERAL PAY RAISES!

* Also, it might be worth noting that the unemployment level is still ridiculously high. Oh, and that a lot of private sector employees, like me, who are lucky enough to still have a job haven't received a raise in a few years. But yeah, let's not vote for Obama. He's obviously evil.

The rich aren't satisfied getting the same tax cut as everyone else, they want an extra tax cut just for them so they can rake it in with both hands and feet.

The Time link proves what a worthless rag that is...they show a chart from 1998 to now thats shows increases in military pay packages. And they leave this as the sum of their arguement by saying...

"as this chart makes clear."

but it does nothing but..

consider 55,208 adjusted for inflation (CPI) is 72,319.49

http://www.westegg.com/inflati...

Consider that in 1998 the US wasn't fighting two bloody wars overseas.
Consider that the US will pay 5X that number to a private security contractor.
Consider that CEO pay rises 14% (!) a year...By that measure a soldiger would be making what by now? 150K?

Obviously we spend all our money on guns and bombs, but to suggest that soldigers are widly overpaid is stupid. Such is Time magazine...

Welcome back, Garth!

Meh. What Obama is doing is canceling the annual cost of living adjustment. Unless inflation takes off in the next couple of years, and that's highly unlikely, the wage freeze will barely be noticeable for most of those affected.

Politically, this is really stupid. As Garth writes freezing federal wages won't have any impact on the budget deficit (and you actually want deficit spending during a recession to stimulate the economy). Obama could have used the wage freeze as a negotiating point with Congress ("hey, you let us raise taxes on people earning over $250K/year and I'll put on a wage freeze") but he's given that point away even before negotiating. Very bizarre.

Inflation has already begun, so the gov't should probably quit enacting policies to continue inflation, then maybe their employees can actually afford goods more easily.

And, you're right, Federal wage freezes won't have an impact on the economy, we need federal wage cuts. Now we've just agreed to maintain the status quo.

And, I know you're just regurgitating the standard Keynesian argument, but why do you want deficit spending during a recession? We've been deficit spending in this country like mad for the past decade. Deficit spending is exactly how we got into this mess to begin with.... so, how is it also the solution?

or he could, i don't know, bring our troops home? those two wars are really cheap right?

It's so ridiculous. Just end the wars already. They're insane.

I think its fine measure. Few non-government workers get cost of living adjustements anyway. And we're all in this together. Right?

Our law makers need to do nothing to increase taxes on the rich via the Bush tax cuts...they will automatically expire.

The Democrats have a majoirty in both the Congress and Sentate...the fact they have waited until the elections and the waning days of their majority to argue that the rich tax cuts should expire and the others should be re-enacted, is an example of how they are equivalent to the republicans...there is no difference between them...

to get a sense of their true intentions, a week ago they tested the waters to say they needed to continue the tax cuts on the rich in order to get a deal. total bull. they and the republicans want the rich to continue to get the tax cuts, because that is who they represent, lock, stock and barrel.

There's 1.9 million people who will not be voting for Obama next time.