Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Paul Ryan Budget Ignores Federal Pay Rate Freeze In Call For Employee Cutbacks

WASHINGTON -- The GOP House budget proposal released by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) Tuesday included a standard Republican talking point for long-term deficit reduction: Slim down the federal workforce and pare back workers' salaries.

But in making the case for a smaller, lesser-paid workforce, the proposal from the House Budget Committee chairman may mislead readers when it comes to recent federal pay. "Immune from the effects of the recession," the budget reads, "federal employees have received regular salary bumps regardless of productivity or economic realities."

Federal employee pay rates have been frozen for more than two years, part of a shared sacrifice toward budget control announced by President Obama in 2010 and backed by Congress. Individual workers have still received pay increases due to performance or promotions, as the Washington Post notes, but workers have not been receiving their regular cost-of-living increase each year.

A Ryan spokesman said the statement in the budget addressed the fact that workers are still eligible for "step and grade increases" as part of the federal workforce, even though they aren't receiving their traditional cost-of-living bumps.

But without those automatic annual raises, many federal workers haven't seen a pay hike at all, said J. David Cox, Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees, a federal employee union. "There's been no across-the-board raises for three years, no cost of living adjustment," Cox said. "Everyone has to have a raise occasionally."

House Republicans passed a bill last month that would extend the pay rate freeze even further. Obama issued an executive order last year that at the end of March would lift the freeze and give federal workers their first cost-of-living increase -- a modest 0.5 percent -- since 2010. The GOP bill would nullify that raise, a move the Democratic-led Senate is expected to take up soon.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com
Author:  Dave Jamieson 

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