The White House and Congress appear to be on the verge of closing a new agreement to fix the debt ceiling, a deal that features massive cuts and no new revenue. What does this mean for federal workers? While the deal does not include explicit cuts for federal workers, that doesn’t mean they won’t feel the overall effects of downsizing. The Washington Post takes a stab at what the future might look like for feds:
The measure does not specify potential targets, but the special committee could examine the numerous ideas for reducing federal benefits have been in ciculation for months.
Those ideas have included, among others, extending the general pay freeze beyond 2012, increasing the employee contribution to retirement, cutting federal employment through partial hiring freezes, reducing retirement benefits for new retirees by changing the way those benefits are calculated, and making cost of living adjustments less generous for all retirees.
Debt deal could trigger federal employee job, benefit cuts
On the Post’s daily live chat, reporters speculated who were the winners and losers in the debt deal. What do you think? Are federal workers some of the biggest losers in this deal?
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Federal workers will always be the “whipping boys” for Congress and the general public. It’s no wonder some fed employees lack the motivation to do their jobs, and for the most part I can’t blame them one bit. I remember living in NYC many years ago when the NYC Transit Authority flexed their muscles against various NYC mayors when the issue of benefit cuts came up in budget talks. If the Transit Authority even thought that the mayor would attack the benefits of transit workers, they initiated a “work slow down”. I remember these moments vividly because the people of NYC were the victims; buses running behind schedule, token booth clerks moving painfully slow to service customers which caused outrageously long lines at the token booths. Not only did this outrage the general public, but the local politicians took massive heat from their constituents to resolve the problem. In the end, transit worker’s benefits never came up in future budget discussions. Now, some will say that the Transit Authority basically held the city hostage, me personally, I think they did what they needed to do to protect their workers. So, whose protecting us?