You are here: Home » Commentary » Federal Salary Cuts To Pay For Payroll Tax Extension?
Federal Salary Cuts To Pay For Payroll Tax Extension?
Posted by: Linda Carbonell on December 2, 2011. 
Republicans want to extend the freeze on federal salaries from two years to five and cut the federal workforce by 10% to pay for extending the payroll tax cut. Quelle surprise. Let’s take another shot at the federal rank and file. The people who keep this country functioning have long been the Republicans favorite whipping boys.
When my husband first went to work for the Feds, the average federal salary was 60% of comparable private sector jobs. The big equalizer was the benefits. The self-contained, self-supporting retirement system was better than most and the health insurance plans were great. That was 1976. It all started going to hell in 1981.
Some jerk told Ronald Reagan that Feds didn’t pay into the Social Security system, but failed to mention that Feds didn’t get Social Security. The retirement system was self-contained and paid for itself. But Reagan needed to infuse more money into Social Security, so he went after the Federal employees and drastically changed the retirement system. That was the first crack in the Federal employees’ pay and benefits. Over the years, the health insurance system and the retirement systems were chipped away at until the benefits really suck and the pay has only risen to 73% of private sector.
And the work load has gotten obscene. You know all those food poisoning scares we’ve had in the past few years? Well, those are a direct result of the lack of federal inspectors. You’ve heard the concerns about the use of cargo container ships for terrorists? Well, that’s a consequence of not having enough port inspectors. All that screaming and hollering about border security? Well, we are seriously undermanned in the ICE.
Republicans like to look at the salaries paid for professionals, people like PhD’s and doctors at facilities like the CDC, and not at the person who processes Social Security applications. To retain the professionals, the Federal government pays well. Not as well as the private sector, but above median income. Most judges could make more in private practice than they do on the bench. But it isn’t the PhD’s and other highly professional people who suffer when the Republicans start cutting jobs, salaries and benefits. It’s the office worker and the law enforcement officer and the security officer. It’s the inspector and the paper pusher and the bean counter. It’s the people who maintain the national parks and sweep the floors in office buildings. It’s the people who work their butts off to fulfill the Constitutional promise of speedy trials.
When my husband retired three years ago, he still hadn’t cracked the median income line. Over thirty years with the Judiciary, and he still wasn’t earning the median income. We had more years than I want to remember when the raise he received for a certain amount of time at the job or his cost-of-living increase was wiped out by increases in health insurance premiums or increases in taxes. It became a running joke in our house. Oh, it’s time for your COLA – what can we cut from the budget?
There is this absolute idiot idea out there that a nation maintains itself, that everything that is necessary for the smooth operation of a country or a state, county or municipality happens by magic. There are real people who make it all happen. There are people who will mount a search party if you get lost in Yosemite. There are people who operate the jails where we hold illegal immigrants being deported. There are people who run training facilities for law enforcement. There are people who prepare meals in those facilities, who clean the toilets and mop the floors. There are doctors and nurses in hospitals run by the government, and aides and housekeepers who make those hospitals clean and effective. None of our governmental services are being properly funded or have enough employees – whether it’s a city that doesn’t have enough people to plow the streets or a state that doesn’t have enough case workers for abused children.
Yes, there are ways that our governments can run more efficiently. Just ask the people who work in those governments. They will be the first to tell you where the waste is. Ask a teacher, and you will probably hear about mountains of stupid paperwork required by state and federal agencies. Ask a Federal office worker and you’ll hear about redundancies in equipment and procedures. What you will hear most in any situation is how stupid management is.
But there is nothing to be gained by just cutting the workforce or freezing salaries. How does firing 10% of the Federal workforce help the economy? Do we really need to lay off an additional 300,000 people? Gee, what’s the agenda behind that one? Do they really want to cut the cost of government or just hike the unemployment numbers before the election? Do we really want to cap people’s salaries for five years? Wasn’t two years enough? How do these people cope with inflation?
Paddy Ashdown, the former leader of Britain’s Liberal Democratic Party, once told his party’s convention “Taxes are the price of civilization.” I would have added a quote from John Maynard Keynes: “The important thing for Government is not to do things which individuals are doing already, and to do them a little better or a little worse; but to do those things which at present are not done at all.” The function of a government is to do the things that individuals cannot do for the benefit or use of the greatest number of people. It is not in our nation’s best interests to cut government. All that does is leave undone those things which individuals cannot do for themselves, all those things that characterize a civilized nation.
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You are here: Home » Commentary » Federal Salary Cuts To Pay For Payroll Tax Extension?
Federal Salary Cuts To Pay For Payroll Tax Extension?
When my husband first went to work for the Feds, the average federal salary was 60% of comparable private sector jobs. The big equalizer was the benefits. The self-contained, self-supporting retirement system was better than most and the health insurance plans were great. That was 1976. It all started going to hell in 1981.
Some jerk told Ronald Reagan that Feds didn’t pay into the Social Security system, but failed to mention that Feds didn’t get Social Security. The retirement system was self-contained and paid for itself. But Reagan needed to infuse more money into Social Security, so he went after the Federal employees and drastically changed the retirement system. That was the first crack in the Federal employees’ pay and benefits. Over the years, the health insurance system and the retirement systems were chipped away at until the benefits really suck and the pay has only risen to 73% of private sector.
And the work load has gotten obscene. You know all those food poisoning scares we’ve had in the past few years? Well, those are a direct result of the lack of federal inspectors. You’ve heard the concerns about the use of cargo container ships for terrorists? Well, that’s a consequence of not having enough port inspectors. All that screaming and hollering about border security? Well, we are seriously undermanned in the ICE.
Republicans like to look at the salaries paid for professionals, people like PhD’s and doctors at facilities like the CDC, and not at the person who processes Social Security applications. To retain the professionals, the Federal government pays well. Not as well as the private sector, but above median income. Most judges could make more in private practice than they do on the bench. But it isn’t the PhD’s and other highly professional people who suffer when the Republicans start cutting jobs, salaries and benefits. It’s the office worker and the law enforcement officer and the security officer. It’s the inspector and the paper pusher and the bean counter. It’s the people who maintain the national parks and sweep the floors in office buildings. It’s the people who work their butts off to fulfill the Constitutional promise of speedy trials.
When my husband retired three years ago, he still hadn’t cracked the median income line. Over thirty years with the Judiciary, and he still wasn’t earning the median income. We had more years than I want to remember when the raise he received for a certain amount of time at the job or his cost-of-living increase was wiped out by increases in health insurance premiums or increases in taxes. It became a running joke in our house. Oh, it’s time for your COLA – what can we cut from the budget?
There is this absolute idiot idea out there that a nation maintains itself, that everything that is necessary for the smooth operation of a country or a state, county or municipality happens by magic. There are real people who make it all happen. There are people who will mount a search party if you get lost in Yosemite. There are people who operate the jails where we hold illegal immigrants being deported. There are people who run training facilities for law enforcement. There are people who prepare meals in those facilities, who clean the toilets and mop the floors. There are doctors and nurses in hospitals run by the government, and aides and housekeepers who make those hospitals clean and effective. None of our governmental services are being properly funded or have enough employees – whether it’s a city that doesn’t have enough people to plow the streets or a state that doesn’t have enough case workers for abused children.
Yes, there are ways that our governments can run more efficiently. Just ask the people who work in those governments. They will be the first to tell you where the waste is. Ask a teacher, and you will probably hear about mountains of stupid paperwork required by state and federal agencies. Ask a Federal office worker and you’ll hear about redundancies in equipment and procedures. What you will hear most in any situation is how stupid management is.
But there is nothing to be gained by just cutting the workforce or freezing salaries. How does firing 10% of the Federal workforce help the economy? Do we really need to lay off an additional 300,000 people? Gee, what’s the agenda behind that one? Do they really want to cut the cost of government or just hike the unemployment numbers before the election? Do we really want to cap people’s salaries for five years? Wasn’t two years enough? How do these people cope with inflation?
Paddy Ashdown, the former leader of Britain’s Liberal Democratic Party, once told his party’s convention “Taxes are the price of civilization.” I would have added a quote from John Maynard Keynes: “The important thing for Government is not to do things which individuals are doing already, and to do them a little better or a little worse; but to do those things which at present are not done at all.” The function of a government is to do the things that individuals cannot do for the benefit or use of the greatest number of people. It is not in our nation’s best interests to cut government. All that does is leave undone those things which individuals cannot do for themselves, all those things that characterize a civilized nation.
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