Trump cancels pay raises for federal employees

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
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Didn't really expect such direct action to suppress wages but hey. Also I'm not sure that they've appreciated the political risk they're running here...there are like 2M such employees and they aren't nearly all in the DC area. Lots of heavily R districts have thousands of these people. This single handedly knocks off at least a couple R reps that I can think of.

Also lol at saving money as the excuse after passing a $1.5T debt fueled tax cut.

President Donald Trump told lawmakers on Thursday he was scrapping a planned pay raise for federal workers, saying the nation's budget couldn't support it.

In a letter to House and Senate leaders, Trump said the pay increase would amount to $25 billion, which he described as "inappropriate."

"We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases," the President wrote.

He stressed the change wouldn't affect the federal government's ability to attract qualified workers, and wrote the government would focus on "recruiting, retaining and rewarding high-performing Federal employees and those with critical skill sets."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/30/politics/trump-cancels-federal-employee-pay-raises/
 
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ewdotson

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Mo Brooks was in the freaking suicide caucus despite Redstone being the economic heart of his district.

I don't think they're worried about it.
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
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Didn't really expect such direct action to suppress wages but hey. Also I'm not sure that they've appreciated the political risk they're running here...there are like 2M such employees and they aren't nearly all in the DC area. Lots of heavily R districts have thousands of these people. This single handedly knocks off at least a couple R reps that I can think of.

Also lol at saving money as the excuse after passing a $1.5T debt fueled tax cut.



https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/30/politics/trump-cancels-federal-employee-pay-raises/
I can't wait for the reaction from all of the DOD Trump fluffers that work in the shop I support. I'm sure they'll take this news quite well. :mad:
 
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K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
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Mo Brooks was in the freaking suicide caucus despite Redstone being the economic heart of his district.

I don't think they're worried about it.

Different times, the GOP/Tea Party isn't riding high on any sort of anti-Obama sentiment. Also Trump telling everybody the economy is amazing and they are so rich then canceling raises isn't the PR their candidates need right now.
 

UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
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He did this as a favor to Manafort, who right now is arguing that he cannot be tried in DC due to a biased jury pool.

Cancelling pay raises is a great way to ensure DC stays "biased" against Trump!
 
Jan 25, 2011
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I've seen some speculation this might be proposed as a back end to clear out career civil servants in DC and NY (as well as other large "liberal" cities). The locality adjustment was already baked into budgets. This will result in a 25% paycut for those people based on the wording of locality payment being set to 0.

Low educated employees generally get paid more than public sector but people with masters degrees or higher are typically well under their public counterparts.
 
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Puffnstuff

Lifer
Mar 9, 2005
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He did this as a favor to Manafort, who right now is arguing that he cannot be tried in DC due to a biased jury pool.

Cancelling pay raises is a great way to ensure DC stays "biased" against Trump!
That logic wouldn't at all surprise me coming from the camp of the stable genius.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
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I've seen some speculation this might be proposed as a back end to clear out career civil servants in DC and NY (as well as other large "liberal" cities). The locality adjustment was already baked into budgets. This will result in a 25% paycut for those people based on the working of locality payment being set to 0.

Low educated employees generally get paid more than public sector but people with masters degrees or higher are typically well under their public counterparts.

Yes, this is thought to be what is motivating this. The possibilities for it to backfire though are kind of mind boggling. The lines for fed whistleblowers to pass info to say a Dem house are going to look like Disneyland on a holiday.

Also I saw someone on Twitter comment: RIP Virginia as a swing state.
 

dyna

Senior member
Oct 20, 2006
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Didn't really expect such direct action to suppress wages but hey. Also I'm not sure that they've appreciated the political risk they're running here...there are like 2M such employees and they aren't nearly all in the DC area. Lots of heavily R districts have thousands of these people. This single handedly knocks off at least a couple R reps that I can think of.

Also lol at saving money as the excuse after passing a $1.5T debt fueled tax cut.



https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/30/politics/trump-cancels-federal-employee-pay-raises/

Just following the numbers that you provided, that appears to be a proposed average of $12,500 per employee raise? Is that right?
 

ewdotson

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Oct 30, 2011
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Different times, the GOP/Tea Party isn't riding high on any sort of anti-Obama sentiment. Also Trump telling everybody the economy is amazing and they are so rich then canceling raises isn't the PR their candidates need right now.
I'd love to believe you're right, but I think you're underestimating the hard right's disconnect with reality. I mean, they *are* different times, but things have gotten *worse* since then. In both the campaigns for the primary for the senate special election and for his house seat, I heard actual people (ie, not Russian trolls) describe Brooks as a RINO because he hadn't always been slavishly devoted to Trump.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
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Just following the numbers that you provided, that appears to be a proposed average of $12,500 per employee raise? Is that right?

There is about a 2% across the board raise and separate increase for locality pay so that the government can retain/hire people places where the cost of living is high.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
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I'd love to believe you're right, but I think you're underestimating the hard right's disconnect with reality. I mean, they *are* different times, but things have gotten *worse* since then. In both the campaigns for the primary for the senate special election and for his house seat, I heard actual people (ie, not Russian trolls) describe Brooks as a RINO because he hadn't always been slavishly devoted to Trump.

Will this make a huge difference in the deepest red places, maybe not. In districts where the R advantage is nonexistent or only a few points...maybe so.
 
Jan 25, 2011
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They need to clarify what they mean by setting locality pay to zero. I'm hoping they mean no increase from 2018 levels. Not eliminating them entirely.
 

Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
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I've seen some speculation this might be proposed as a back end to clear out career civil servants in DC and NY (as well as other large "liberal" cities). The locality adjustment was already baked into budgets. This will result in a 25% pay cut for those people based on the wording of locality payment being set to 0.

Wow! Lawsuits or just union actions to follow?
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
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Also Congress could decide, and might well, to override him in September. Though he could veto the spending bills over a lack of wall money too.
 

dyna

Senior member
Oct 20, 2006
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There is about a 2% across the board raise and separate increase for locality pay so that the government can retain/hire people places where the cost of living is high.

That might be true but you don't need 25 billion to do that for 2 million employees.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
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That might be true but you don't need 25 billion to do that for 2 million employees.

I don't know what the basis is for his figure. $25B alone for locality sounds like either what the gov is already paying/would pay or the increase figured over x number of years to make a bigger number. His letter isn't entirely clear.