| President Obama is at it again. Under the mantle of "centrism" President Obama is proposing a pay freeze for federal employees.
http://www.denverpost.com/news...
A pay freeze for public employees at a time of record corporate profits, expiring unemployment benefits and paying $700 billion for extension of a huge tax cut for wealthy Americans.....is obscene.
In doing so, the President is guilty of a rookie mistake from a collective bargaining perspective i.e. he continually bargains against himself. He did the same thing with health care when he took "single payer" and then the "public option" off the table for nothing in return.
No doubt that he's expecting the GOP to respond in-kind by agreeing to pass the much needed unemployment extension or giving in on extending tax cuts for the wealthy. They won't.... and he'll be stuck screwing his constituents one more time. It looks more and more difficult for him to rebuild the coalition that got him elected. He's angered teachers, labor and now federal employees.
The worst part is that pay freezes run like a virus, no doubt that state government and business leaders will be looking to follow his example. All this in a time when wages for the middle class are stagnant and health care costs are exploding (in spite of "health care reform"). I do hear some folks say "they deserve a pay cut, they make too much money". That is middle class cannibalism. Public employees are the cops, forresters, firemen, teachers, etc. that live next door. They have the same dreams and aspirations as you. The problem is on Wall street, not Main street. Don't point the finger next door, point it at the hedge fund mananger who creates nothing, builds nothing, and then bails out of paying their fair share of taxes by bribing congress to extend their tax cuts.
Obama needs to restock his political corps to get away from corporatism and get back to the populism that got him elected and come to realize that:
AMERICA NEEDS A PAY RAISE!!! |
