WASHINGTON — President Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for civilian federal workers on Monday as he sought to address concerns over sky-high deficit spending and appeal to Republican leaders to find a common approach to restoring the nation’s economic and fiscal health.
“The hard truth is that getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifice and that sacrifice must be shared by employees of the federal government,” Mr. Obama said at a White House news conference.
The myth is that federal workers are somehow lifeless animatronic replicants who don't have families or mortgages or, you know, the basic human need to ingest food. And considering how many other insanely wasteful expenditures are ballooning the deficit (looking at you, Pentagon) it seems like we're punishing the wrong people. By the way, this is lumped on top of the fact that the government has actually been firing workers while adding private sector jobs.
Adding... From the above article:
While a pay freeze will make only a small dent in the federal deficit, it represents a symbolic gesture toward public anger over unemployment, the anemic economic recovery and rising national debt.
So we're screwing federal workers because some people are pissed off? Good call.