No raise for you

[Captain Morgan]

Originally Posted by pauldun170

The proposal...would not affect members of Congress or their staffs, defense contractors, postal workers or federal court judges and workers.

"I did not reach this decision easily, this is not a line item on a federal ledger, these are people's lives," Obama said.

But, he added, "getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifice, and that sacrifice must be shared by the employees of the federal government."

Congress, not covered by Obama's new freeze plans as separate branch of government, froze its pay last April, with House and Senate votes to forgo an automatic $1,600 annual cost of living increase.

Obama indicated there were other belt-tightening steps ahead. "We're going to have to make some additional very tough decisions that this town has put off for a very long time," he said. At the same time, noting continued economic weakness, Obama said, "We can't put the brakes on too quickly" because of the still-fragile economy.

Jeffrey Zients, deputy White House budget director, told reporters the two-year freeze on Executive Branch civilian workers was "the first of many difficult steps ahead that we'll be taking in the upcoming budget to put our nation on sound fiscal footing, steps that will ask for all of us to sacrifice."

Ok, so this measure will ask for all of us to sacrifice. Well, all of us except Congress, postal workers, the military, and federal court workers. The only ones of that group that I understand is the military. Most are vastly underpaid (enlisted, anyway) and have to sacrifice a lot. But why do postal workers get a break? Shocking that Congress opted not to take a direct pay raise, but I'd be willing to bet most made up for it with other forms of compensation.

Also, there are MANY other things that need to be cut in government spending. I'd really like to know what is planned, but I doubt they're cutting out all the pet projects and other crap. There is way too much bullshit that gets thrown into bills. If we cut out all of that BS, we might actually be able to get back into profit. This is nothing more than a simple way to put on the appearance of cutting spending, while not actually getting into the meat of the whole thing.