Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Federal pay freeze - The next thing in fiscal duty

On Monday, President Obama announced that in order to tame the massive government debt, plans have been created to institute a two-year government pay lock-up. Accounts indicate that such a financial move would slash the government deficit by $28 billion within five years and $60 billion within a decade. This would affect all civilian federal employees, but active military would be excluded.

It seems the federal pay lock-up is a sacrifice

Jeffrey Zients, the deputy director of the Obama administration’s Office of Management and Budget, touted the government pay freeze plan – which must still be approved by Congress – as a major belt-tightening. Zients explained, "it is a very first of several difficult steps ahead" when discussing all the moves the govt will have to make if financial ground is going to be regained by the government.

Just spending cuts and government job reductions

It appears like everybody is concerned about "fiscal responsibility" right now. The govt is attempting to discover a way to get the deficit to go down. There was a government job reductions plan that was stated by former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY.) came up with. This was pretty unpopular though as through the next decade, over 250,000 private contractor positions and 200,000 federal jobs would have been lost. President Obama has avoided such dramatic tactics and focused much more on the just spending reductions that could possibly be obtained via a moratorium on earmarks.

The reason why not to use a federal pay freeze

Numerous Washington, D.C., insiders believe that Obama’s federal pay freeze is more a symbolic gesture than anything of great fiscal meaning. There would no longer be any talented workers as government workers. That is what the pay lock-up would do. The country may really need this symbolic gesture though. That is what some suggest. It seems like the government is extending a peace offering. That may be how it’s taken.

Govt paying out too much for government workers

More federal employees are making too much. Over $150,000 a year is more common within the govt now, reports USA Today. Over the past 5 years, the number has grown tenfold, and it has doubled since President Obama took office. The doctors at veteran’s hospitals have been lots of parts of this change. Considering the United States of America is mired in 2 ongoing wars, the workload has increased.

Info from

Huffington Post

huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/29/federal-pay-freeze-obama_n_789141.html



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