Benevolent Emporer grants pay raises
Well, that’s how it sounded to me when I read the LA Times article about the president who “grants” a pay raise to the troops and the federal workers;
President Obama issued an executive order Monday granting civilian and military employees a 1% pay raise in 2014.
Military employees have received a raise each year that Obama has been in the White House, but civilian pay has been flat over the last three years as members of Congress have tangled over the budget and the federal deficit.
On the campaign trail in 2010 and 2012, some Republicans targeted the pay scale of federal employees, suggesting that inflated government employment was contributing to the nation’s fiscal problems, although their salaries make up a small portion of the overall budget.
I like the part about federal employees’ salaries make up a “small portion of the overall budget”. I’m pretty sure that the LA Times wouldn’t say the same thing about veterans’ pensions being a small portion of the overall defense budget since the line lately has been that retires are responsible for the Defense budget being busted.
I remember in the last decade, my workmates complained that President Bush “only” gave them a 3 1/2% cost of living raise. It’s funny how I haven’t heard them complaining about getting no COLA increases the last few years. I guess that would make them racist, or something if they said something today. Either that or they’d have to blame it on “Congress”.
Personally, I don’t need the pay raise, I controlled my costs by moving out of DC. They probably don’t need it, either, well, except those idiots who had to dip into their 401ks when they missed one pay check last Fall, you know when the government shut down because Congress wanted to delay the healthcare plan for a year, which has become the policy of this administration in recent days.
But it seems kind of incongruous that the President signed his executive order while on a millions of dollars vacation in Hawai’i.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Dumbass Bullshit
…y’all don’t spend it all in one place now.
Huh–and here I thought that Congress wrote the checks. Guess that’s what happens when you have a so-called “Constitutional scholar” who never did jack shit in a law office or courtroom running the show.
Remember that Navy POS Adm. James Winnefeld said:
Growth in pay and benefits is “out of touch and simply not sustainable.”
Winnefield is the #2 man in the military. I guess when you’ve topped out in pay (or close to it) you can wield the big stick on the troops you are suppose to take care of.
Screw him.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno on Monday said he favors the president’s recommended 1 percent pay raise for troops over Congress’ 1.8 percent recommendation.
Another soldier taking care of the troops. And one wonders what is wrong with the military. Looks like it starts at the top.
NHSparky: I’d have to research it to be sure (and have neither the time nor inclination at present to do so), but I believe one of the annual Federal appropriations bills typically allows the POTUS to set Federal civilian employee and military annual pay raises within specified limits. If so, Congress has already authorized this action.
If Congress wants a different amount for either military or Federal civilian pay raises, all they have to do is pass another law.
Re: The $$$$$ vacations POTUS and sycophants have indulged in for five years. IMO, this is the clearest indication of all that Obama is not a leader…and pretty much all of both Houses, with him.
Ie, “Set the example.”
@6–I don’t doubt you, but as a “purist” I tend to care a little more about Article I, Section 8, than some obscure (sorry) federal bureaucratic rule which allows (within limits) the president to establish pay raises, even if they do suck.
Just out of curiousity, I wonder how much tax money B. Hussein 0bama & family as well as friends have spent on vacations, luxuries, and perks in comparison to past presidents?
@9 Infidel I wonder the same thing. He spends “OUR” money like it was his own. He has no sense of decency toward the American people and especially the veterans and retirees. Don’t know who it will be in 2016 but at least it won’t be him any longer. When all is said and done I believe he will go down in history as one of the most deplorable presidents, if not the most. Well, except for the fat assed, welfare woman with her “Obama phone”.
NHSparky: if the Congress passed a law allowing it, it’s not exactly just a “bureaucratic rule”. The funding has been duly authorized by Congress and authority granted to the Executive to apportion it within limits.
One can make an argument that Congress is abdicating it’s responsibility by doing that. One can make an equally valid argument that they’re allowing appropriate executive discretion.
I’ve got no problem with Congress allowing such discretion, so long as it’s applied evenhandedly. Unfortunately, neither the POTUS nor Congress has been particularly evenhanded when it comes to it’s activities lately.
@1 Thanks ChipNASA! LMAO at that video. You can be sure that was Obama’s attitude toward giving the tremendous 1%. My question is, what is wrong with a decent, adjusted for inflation, 3.5%? Not like the military doesn’t deserve it far more than all we give to all the illegals and welfare recipients!
And by the way, to all the welfare people and illegals getting housing, money, food stamps, medical, etc., etc., YOU ARE F@CKING WELCOME AND MERRY F@CKING CHRISTMAS!!! Get on your “Obama phones” and GET A F@CKING JOB for the New Year! Or better still, GET THE HELL OUT OF THE COUNTRY AND GO BACK HOME!!!
Sorry folks I am on a tear about this. Pisses me off a little.
Sparks, haven’t you heard that old chestnut?
It goes like this: What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is my own.
It applies to all US taxpayers, whether we like it or not.
As someone working in the private sector, I haven’t had a raise or bonus for the entire 4 years I’ve been an employee. However, my job offers other things that money can’t buy – a 45 hour workweek instead of 80+, co-workers that are pleasant, my own office, work from home most of the week and anytime the weather is bad or I just need to.
Although inflation and the Fed’s toying with the dollar via QE, i.e. printing money, has taken a toll on my salary, at this point I’m grateful I have a job and that my job is not hell on earth.
@14–the working conditions at my new job aren’t always as comfortable as the old one, the benefits aren’t as good, and the pay isn’t much more (couple of bucks an hour) but there are several perks that make the overall compensation a LOT more attractive, foremost among them is the company vehicle, which saves me a BUTTLOAD of money in gas and wear/tear on my personal vehicle.
It’s getting to the point where we have to be pretty creative in figuring out how to make/save a buck.