Obama Announces Federal Pay Freeze

Earlier today, President Obama announced a plan to freeze civilian federal employee pay for two years. The pay freeze “applies to all Executive Branch workers — including civilian employees of the Defense Department, but does not apply to military personnel, government contractors, postal workers, members of Congress, Congressional staffers, or federal court judges and workers.” The pay freezewill also “not...

Earlier today, President Obama announced a plan to freeze civilian federal employee pay for two years. The pay freeze “applies to all Executive Branch workers — including civilian employees of the Defense Department, but does not apply to military personnel, government contractors, postal workers, members of Congress, Congressional staffers, or federal court judges and workers.” The pay freezewill also “not impact step increases or bonuses for federal workers.” The plan needs to be approved by Congress before it will go into effect.

According to White House officials, the plan “will save $2 billion for the remainder of FY 2011, $28 billion over the next five years, and more than $60 billion over the next 10 years.” President Obama’s pay freeze recommendation is a full year shorter than the federal pay freeze proposed by his deficit reduction commission.

In his speech, President Obama said, “The hard truth is that getting this deficit under control is going to require broad sacrifice.  And that sacrifice must be shared by the employees of the federal government.” The president added, “After all, small businesses and families are tightening their belts.  Their government should, too.”

The numerous responses to the plan have been mix, but many seem to agree that the move is largely symbolic.

In a statement, Rep. Boehner (R-OH) said that “Without a hiring freeze, a pay freeze won’t do much to rein in a federal bureaucracy that added hundreds of thousands of employees to its payroll over the last two years while the private sector shed millions of jobs.”

Rep. Issa (R-CA) called the pay freeze “necessary and, quite frankly, long overdue.”

The AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said “Today’s announcement of a two-year pay freeze for federal workers is bad for the middle class, bad for the economy and bad for business,” because “No one is served by our government participating in a ‘race to the bottom’ in wages.”

AFGE National President John Gage called the pay freeze “a superficial, panicked reaction to the deficit commission report.”

Daily Kos, a liberal blog, blames the “symbolic gesture” on the president’s “unfortunate alter-ego, President Gimmick.” The blog elaborates:

Confronted with the choice between making the tough decision to defend federal spending during a recession or to develop a plan to actually slash spending, President Gimmick takes a third way: pretending to do something. In the process, he concedes that he believes his critics are right on the merits, but far from signaling strength, he signals that he’s too weak to do anything serious about it.

The worst thing about President Gimmick isn’t that he plays politics, though. The worst thing about President Gimmick is that he’s not very good at it.

What do you think of the civilian federal pay freeze? Share your thoughts in the comment section.