President extends federal pay freeze

[alp227]

Source: Washington Post

President Obama told congressional leaders Tuesday that he is extending a two-year pay freeze for federal employees until at least next spring because Congress has not agreed on a budget for the next fiscal year.

The freeze will stay in effect until a spending plan is passed, but the presidential election makes it unlikely that will happen before the start of fiscal 2013 on Oct. 1. As a result, the president is required by the end of August to come up with an “alternative pay plan” to avoid a legal trigger that would automatically raise federal pay in line with private-sector salaries. The alternative pay plan is usually a routine event signaling that Congress and the White House have agreed on a salary increase for federal workers.

With no budget, the freeze will stay in place until at least April, when a short-term spending deal that congressional leaders reached before their August recess to fund the government for six months runs out. The short-term agreement keeps spending at current levels and is silent on the federal pay freeze.

In a letter to House and Senate leaders, the president reiterated his support for ending the pay freeze with a 0.5 percent raise, to take effect Jan. 1, 2013, that he proposed early this year.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/president-extends-federal-pay-freeze/2012/08/21/d8087966-ebf2-11e1-9ddc-340d5efb1e9c_story.html

[fasttense]

1. The freeze was stupid to begin with.

No country has ever cut it's budget enough to bring in economic recovery. In fact when a government contracts, the economy usually contracts.

The federal wage freeze merely reduced working class people's wages so we could continue to pay for the extension of the bush tax give away to idle rich.