Monday, November 29, 2010
Obama calls for 2-year freeze on federal pay
Today President Barack Obama proposed a two-year freeze for salaries for over 2 million federal workers. They are doing this in attempt to cut the deficit from Republicans. The freeze however will only make a tiny dent in annual deficits or the nation's $14 trillion debt. The Obama administration said the plan was designed to save more that $5 billion over the first two years. The proposal still must be approved by congress, but it would not apply to the military, but it will affect all others on the Executive Branch payroll. Many republicans are furious at the decision, Colleen Kelly, head of the 150,000 member treasury employees union, "We're going to do everything we can to make this not happen and to explore all our options". that if passed won't take effect until Jan 1 2011, and as the federal government as the nations leading employer, Obama says we are tightening belts, as the economy and federal spending were top priority. I feel this is a great idea by President Obama, it places the pressure of the economy on the people that have the power to make a difference. With personal ties to the situation, and Republicans unhappy with the decision, they are forced to either deal with it or find an alternative solution.
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I also saw this story and I feel that it is a good way to get people scared. The people who are going to be affected need to do something else so they will not have to worry about losing money out of their own pockets. To say he wants to freeze it for two years is gon get all of thm republicans n the seats scared so overall it is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteI think this is amazing. Although I don't really understand how it is just taking from Republicans, I am very glad to read that for at LEAST little while, the rich can finally stop getting richer. While this won't by any means permanently fix the economy, it is a start by stopping and saving $5 billion dollars. While a cynic would say that this is not going to change anything, I would very much beg to differ. The steps that Obama has started moving in are very much in the right direction to a better and more stable economy--at least as how I understand economy to be.
ReplyDeleteHey im going to jump on the band wagon and say that I also saw this article and was going to right about it but, changed my mind. I think this was a good move by the president as well. When I read the story earlier on Foxnews, the article talked about how the republicans posed this option a few years back and was relieved that Obama finally got on board with it after some repulicans were trying to push it. In fact, I believe the words they used to respresent what the republicans stated was "about time". This salary freeze will save the country a pretty big amount of money, i believe 2 billion in the next two years. That only makes me wonder, how much were federal employees getting paid! Of course this number relies on how many employees we currently have.
ReplyDeleteGoodnight!
-Damian