This is not necessarily breaking news, but it is news none the less. Recently President Obama made the decision to freeze the pay for most of the 2 million government workers. The pay freeze applies to all Executive Branch employees 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.
Not surprisingly this move has alot of people in the government sector up in arms. The freeze will take effect on January 1st of 2011 pending Congressional approval. And I don't think Congress will try and stop the bill considering their pay will not be effected by this legislation. This decision will save the government $2billion over the course of 2011 and $28 billion over the coarse of the next 5 years! That is a whole bunch of money!!
The problem is that the reasoning behind the move is a bit more complicated then you might think. At first glance, you think ok great.. the bloated government is going to sacrifice just like the rest of us do. But sadly that is not the case. After some research into the bill, you begin to see that most of the people who will be hit with this freeze are the people that work beside our wonderful government in the civilian sector. I guess the one good thing, the saving grace if you will, of this whole fiasco is that it is just a pay freeze. Meaning after the proposed two years are up, people who deserve a raise in pay may be able to get one.
So who does suffer? Well.. it turns out that most government employees and appointees were hit last year when Obama put a halt to all bonuses for those positions. So civilian jobs that work with government officials seem to be the ones that will be effected. As well as government employees in the Department of Defense. I mention this department because many people hear this and assume that it means the military. However this is not the case. The military is not effected by this freeze. So those who protect our freedom and put forth the greatest sacrifice of all will not be touched by the freeze.
But we must remember, this is only a pay freeze. And though it is not exactly good news for those effected, it is not necessarily completely bad news either. A year ago Obama made cuts and took away bonuses and other pay incentives that certain people have grown accustomed to for years. This is a different situation, no one will be losing money. They will just not be getting any extra money over the next couple years. And that is the fact that many people seem to ignore. People see the word freeze and have started to freak a bit. And yes, most of these jobs work long, hard hours. And I bet that most of these jobs are not easy and come with a whole bunch of stress. But so do many other jobs in the civilian sector. Those of us who work every day and usually 6 and sometimes 7 days a week just to put food on the table are no stranger to work. And unfortunately we too have not seen many raises lately. If we can keep from being laid off that is.
As Cheech and Chong have said, "Things Are Tough All Over". And we all struggle to keep what we already have. Many in government are saying that Obama is only putting this out there as a political public relations stunt. Saying that government nurses, border patrol agents, and other personnel are being unfairly targeted for Democratic election losses. And I can see where this would be the prevailing thought. But can any of us say that is positively the case? No we cannot. And when the federal budget will end up saving around 5 billion dollars over the coarse of the bill, it sounds like a good move to me. Yes, it sucks if your the ones effected. But alot of these positions are already being paid over what similar positions in non-government related fields are being paid. So if you do not get a raise for the next two years, I think they will survive. And all of this may be a moot point anyhow as congress will be lobbied hard to put an end to this bill.
So in the end, we stand a chance to save about $5 billion. An amount that will not even put a dent in $1 trillion national debt. We also have a bill that has many government officials up in arms and vowing to fight this to the end. We have many in the civilian world that are of the opinion that this is a good thing. Much like any bill that touts cutting government spending. The public sure loves cutting money from the already over-paid government. But this bill kind of splits it down the middle because it hits the civilians that work with the government. So it will be interesting to see what happens in the end. If Congress allows this to pass or not. One thing is for sure, if this passes you will have many who will be taking a much closer look at pay levels of government officials. And because their paychecks will start to take a hit, they will look for other ways to save the money. And to see what starts to get cut will end up being where the story really starts.
