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Obama to freeze federal wages for 2 year

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IceBergSLiM said:
They should cut staff 15%-20% across the board while they are at it while not decreasing output. Then maybe they really know what its like in the real world.
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Cutting staff I agree with. There are few places where the work could easily be done by less people. As for 15/20%, I assume you just pulled those numbers out of the air. The attitude of "I'm suffering so every fucker should suffer" is just plain retarded and helps no one.
 
IndyColtsFan said:
Most would probably say he isn't going far enough, and while I would agree with that, I would say this is a good start.
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It is a good start... but these salaries are only a small piece of the federal budget pie. Medicare, SS, and defense spending are the biggies. Freezing salaries while increasing entitlements does not do a whole lot.

There needs to be a 5 year freeze at least... and not just on salaries. A five year spending freeze of the whole budget.

Revenues are expected to increase at 7% per year. Stop the spending and lets grow the economy back to where there is no deficit spending. Of course you would have to be more drastic that this but you have to start somewhere.
 
Here's the picture...


f


...now take a look at the dramatic rise in federal contract spending over that last decade (
http://www.navigantconsulting.com/downloads/2010_series_julyaugsept.pdf - See Figure 1 on Page 5 - "Total amount spent on federal contracts").

And lastly look at spending as a percent of GDP.
Us_gov_spending_history_1902_2010.png


This is madness and it needs to end now.
 
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IceBergSLiM said:
Everyone else has been suffering wage freezes and furloughs the past two years. Its about time they get on board with the rest of us.
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Quite true.

Linflas said:
I did pretty much what Throck did and knew going in that I was taking a big cut. It was worth it to me since I no longer spend 13 hours of my day getting paid for 8 hours of work (counting the obnoxious 1.5 hour each way commute). I am now back making what I was in 2004 and have much better job security despite all the rounds of budget cutting. We had no COLA/Step increase this year and that is fine with me, I am still employed and still only drive 6 miles each way to work and home. It was my decision going in to trade off the salary for security and benefits and I don't regret it at all.
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Congrats, you've discovered the secret of happiness - that wages are not everything. Well, ONE of the secrets anyway.
 
As a fiscally conservative federal employee, I can accept the pay freeze, even if it is at odds with my own interests. But come on now, it's really a drop in the bucket. Defense spending, social security, and medicare are the biggest spenders, federal employee pay is what, 0.1% of the total budget? If you have a big pile of shit to get rid of, you're not going to do much good shoveling it with a little garden spade.
 
Better yet, reduce their hours to less than 35 a week and make them all part time employees who can buy their own benefits. Or even better just do away with the jobs completely. I doubt anyone would notice the difference.
 
Triumph said:
As a fiscally conservative federal employee, I can accept the pay freeze, even if it is at odds with my own interests. But come on now, it's really a drop in the bucket. Defense spending, social security, and medicare are the biggest spenders, federal employee pay is what, 0.1% of the total budget? If you have a big pile of shit to get rid of, you're not going to do much good shoveling it with a little garden spade.
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As new federal employee I accept the freeze as a decent idea, however given the huge paycut i took when my contract got insourced I doubt I will stick around much longer.
 
Triumph said:
As a fiscally conservative federal employee, I can accept the pay freeze, even if it is at odds with my own interests. But come on now, it's really a drop in the bucket. Defense spending, social security, and medicare are the biggest spenders, federal employee pay is what, 0.1% of the total budget? If you have a big pile of shit to get rid of, you're not going to do much good shoveling it with a little garden spade.
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It is a small drop in the bucket, but lots of these "small drops" add up quickly. It is a great start, but more needs to be done. SS, defense, etc. are going to have to be cut eventually as well.
 
Doc Savage Fan said:
Here's the picture...


&


...now take a look at the dramatic rise in federal contract spending over that last decade (
http://www.navigantconsulting.com/downloads/2010_series_julyaugsept.pdf - See Figure 1 on Page 5 - "Total amount spent on federal contracts").

And lastly look at spending as a percent of GDP.
Us_gov_spending_history_1902_2010.png


This is madness and it needs to end now.
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I see what you did there. You completely mischaracterized reality by posting your biased intellectually dishonest graphs.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/09/how_many_federal_workers_are_t.html

6gv1mw.png


Notice how Reagan had 2.77 million federal employees compared to Obama's 2.65 million (even including temp Census workers)? Does that make your little rightwing brain explode?
 
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IndyColtsFan said:
There is a huge discrepancy between your numbers and Doc's.
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Because his numbers are "government employees" not federal gov employees. No shit numbers of teachers, firemen, police, etc have increased (because of pop increase and spreading out of pop due to suburbanization) while manufacturing jobs have gone overseas. You can't outsource your local public servants.
 
Throckmorton said:
Because his numbers are "government employees" not federal gov employees. No shit numbers of teachers, firemen, police, etc have increased (because of pop increase and spreading out of pop due to suburbanization) while manufacturing jobs have gone overseas. You can't outsource your local public servants.
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Its funny when peoples data is shot to hell and back and they run away from the thread instead of learning something and owning it.
 
dabuddha said:
We're also going to be losing our $120 bonus transportation subsidy this coming January so that's another $120/month out of my pocket (my monthly train pass costs me ~$310). Now we lose our cost of living increase while our other expenses continue to rise (health insurance premiums rising across the board as well as mass transit costs)
.
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Whoop-dee-fvcking-doo. Most people are responsible for their own transportation expenses for getting to-from work. I have no sympathy for government employees.
 
2/3 of American's depend on govt cheese in one form or another from 44,000,000 on Food Stamps to 21,000,000 govt employees. This is unsustainable. Countries are not lending us to mask the unproductive economy anymore so we are printing which will lead to Wiemar Germany. freezing cola in Federal salaries are nothing. Let me know we we get serious. Until then I am prepared for the worst.
 
Throckmorton said:
Because his numbers are "government employees" not federal gov employees. No shit numbers of teachers, firemen, police, etc have increased (because of pop increase and spreading out of pop due to suburbanization) while manufacturing jobs have gone overseas. You can't outsource your local public servants.
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It's also plotted against "Goods-producing workers" with no citation or definition of what constitutes such. A waitress would be, by most accounts, not a "goods-producing worker". The same goes for a database manager. As the US economy shifts from manufacturing ("goods-producing") to service (not "goods-producing") the top graph ignores the most relevant sector of the modern economy while emphasizing the quickly shrinking sector.
 
IndyColtsFan said:
It is a small drop in the bucket, but lots of these "small drops" add up quickly. It is a great start, but more needs to be done. SS, defense, etc. are going to have to be cut eventually as well.
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That's a dangerous way to go about it. Fabulous wealth next to misery and destitution. Sorta like Mexico.

Personally I'd look at structure that worked, in American's epoch 1950-1960. Paid off massive debt, were worlds creditor instead of debtor, anyone who wanted a job had one usually a high paid union job which could support a whole family, etc
 
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Balt said:
Ah, thanks for the link. Didn't realize those at the top of the payscale had increased in size/salary so much in the last 5 years.

Yeah, that definitely needs to be fixed.
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Might want to look at it again. That and other stories have been blown out of the water over and over again.

Max salary for a GS-15 step 10 is 155k in DC area. That means those making over 150k are doctors or other special fields. Heck even the story put in at the end that 150k+ people make up less than 4% of Fed Employees.

To do a full wide pay cut would hurt those that did not see big jumps in pay.
 
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dabuddha said:
Can't speak for everyone but for myself, last year alone, my transportation cost went up about $10/15 per month. My health insurance premiums went up by almost $80 / month (rough guess, it's been over a year since I left BCBS) Food costs have gone up slightly. Gas prices for the most part have roughly remained the same.
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I am being a sarcastic asshole. Everyone but the government seems to realize the cost of living has gone up hence the 1% cpi numbers that are, and have generally been, bullshit. Of course some people think that I am anti-Obama when I call the numbers bullshit just because he happens to be the asshole in office when the bullshit numbers are put out. I am often accused of supporting the patriot act and the general routing of the 4th amendment under Republican rule because I am against it now. Some people think you have to be "against" someone instead of "for" something (such as our rights).
 
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