We Also Hear That The White House Commissary Will Be Switching to Hunt’s Ketchup

In a dramatic gesture towards fiscal discipline yesterday the President made a grand pronouncement that he would freeze the pay of federal workers for two years.

Well, not all federal workers, he would exempt the military.

Also, Congress and their staffers would not be included.

Nor would defense contractors

Or postal workers.

And judges.

And people who work for judges.

But other than that, all federal workers would have their pay frozen.

Well, not “frozen” in the sense that they can’t make more than they are now through normal step increases, just that they won’t get any cost of living increases.

But other than that, their pay is completely frozen.

As long as you don’t include bonuses. They can still get those.

We think that’s it.

In all, the President's sweeping proposal means that some federal workers will miss out on a 0.9% pay increase this year.

Draconian? Maybe. But as the president said, "Reining in our deficits will take tough decisions and sacrifices made by us all.

How did federal employee unions react to the president's call for shared sacrifice by foregoing a tiny pay increase?

“This proposal is a superficial panic reaction..  just a public relations gesture... political scapegoating... unconscionable..."

We'll just put them in the "undecided" column for now.

So what will the savings add up to?  According to the President’s OMB director, it could: “…save $2 billion over the remainder of this fiscal year, $28 billion in cumulative savings over the next five years, and more than $60 billion over the next 10 years.”

Wow!  $60 billion sounds pretty impressive.  But why stop there?  We calculate that this difficult move will save in excess of $600 billion over the next 100 years and as much as $9 trillion by the year 3510. Think of all the earmarks $9 trillion could buy. (Train stations for everyone!)

If you want to learn more about the President’s pay freeze, the White House has prepared a handy fact sheet that starts off answering what must be the most important question on everyone’s mind:

“Because of the irresponsibility of the past decade, the President inherited a $1.3 trillion projected deficit upon taking office.”

But that’s just the first paragraph. In the second paragraph, the White House’s fact sheet starts to get into the real nitty gritty of the plan:

“Now, we need to turn our attention to addressing the massive deficits we inherited.”

It is not clear if the President inherited the pay freeze.

J.