First Name: Laura
Current Event Posting Number: 2
Topic: Money
Title: Obama calls for federal wage freeze
Writer: Charles Riley
Publication Name: CNN
Date of Publication: November 29, 2010
Length: 639 words
On Monday, November 29, 2010 President Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for federal workers. He is going to cut their salary by 10% in efforts to solve the national debt problem. The president will meet with congressional leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties along with his newly appointed bipartisan deficit committee. The freeze will pay off $2 billion of our debt in 2011, and is planned to continue for the next five years. Most republicans are very supportive of the pay freeze, and as predicted the National Federation of Federal Employees is not. William Dougan, President of NFFE fought back saying, "We understand that sacrifices will have to be made in order to reduce our nation's growing budget deficit, but we believe doing so at the expense of dedicated civil service employees is a misguided approach."
In conclusion, this wage freeze is a step towards decreasing our deficit. It will affect 2 million federal workers. It will save $60 billion over the next decade, which is just a small fraction of the estimated $13 trillion deficit. The White House says that more ‘tough choices’ are on the way; so federal workers shouldn’t feel ‘singled out’. Many Republicans are pleased with Obama’s decision, along with many other Americans who want to alleviate our national deficit. According to a CNN Opinion survey, 68% of Americans agree that though the Federal Department will have to sacrifice part of their wage, it is needed to minimize America’s large debt.
I am glad that there is an agreement with the people and the president on this issue. I hope that Obama's act of cutting 10% of salary for federal workers will help the United States's debt problem. I wish that the economy will get better.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a good idea to freeze federal workers money. It might only cover the fraction of our deficit, but it is a step into a trillion dollars. Right now all we need is to get out of this troubling economy.
ReplyDelete