The left won't agree but then they aren't very smart or moral. They only want to take what others earn.

(1,391,548 1,000,000)*.2, looks like there's a typo in that number in the formula, an extra one… …,548 1,…

Morgan, Congress will never go for it. It is way to easy to understand. It doesn't give any political cover for the next election cycle.

This could work!

However, if the Democrats want an alternative plan to this, then maybe it could be proposed that a "progressive" scale be used – those that make the most would have the highest percentage pay cut…

Considering most in the private sector make and average of $40,000 a year and government worker make $71,000, I don't think its a bad idea:

"What are they going to do? Quit? Strike? Bring it on. Newt’s 1994 revolution will look uneventful by comparison. We call them civil “servants,” for a reason."

Not if they want to eat they won't quit.

I think this a great, but highly improbable, idea. My only concern would be cutting police officers pay. I'm not a police officer, but I've read and heard studies relating to police corruption and low pay. I'd rather have them compensated to the point where they're not trying to shake people down or dispense unequal protection. I also wish government jobs were connected to the private sectors unemployment rate – we lose jobs then they lose jobs.

"What are they going to do? Quit? Strike? Bring it on."

PLEEEEEEAZZZZE!!!! BRING IT ON!

well, here in illinois, fireman get their own line on my property tax bill. so the village does not pay for them. school teachers get their own line on my property tax bill. the garbage man is a private contract. but we do have village employees who get paid union wages, with full medical and pensions. i just saw them yesterday, with a full crew. you know one guy to direct traffic, he got his own truck and assistant. then the guy in front clearing the way, he also had a assistant. then there was the work detail, all four of them. so we had eight guys with full healthcare, pensions and union wages, along with three full sized dumptrucks spewing out diesel fumes. what was the project all this tax money was specifically doing to maintain the village? give your self 100 points if you guessed taking down christmas lights.

Which means service would no longer be available for many. Maybe you are only familiar with the Israeli constitution but the US Constitution provides for a postal service. Let's cut out the things that are 100% loss – like our aid to Israel.

Yeah, that will finish off the Middle Class. The rest of the jobs have been sent overseas.

I agree, but I say cut govt by 20% across the board, and then cut the pay by 40% to bring it in line with the private sector. A public service job should be just that, public service, not a luxurious gravy train funded by taxpayers.

Actually, that would be the best part. We don't need to cut pay for police but reduce their numbers and have them focus on real crimes, not speeding.

Anytime I write a letter to the editor about our financial disaster; I'm shocked at the size of these numbers, I have to use scientific notation to do the math because my calculator does not have enough digits.

Most police work at the state, county, city and local level, not federal. At the federal level there is tremendous waste due to the overlap of different departments such as FBI, Homeland Security, etc. we don't need 12 departments to do 1 job.

While I agree with this, I think it should be taken a couple of steps further. Get rid of pensions. That's right, bet rid of all pensions. Why should government employees get pensions, some paying out 80% salary for the remainder of the employees life, while the bulk of American workers have to rely on the dying Social Security system? I believe all government pensions should be liquidated immediately, all proceeds dumped into SS and SS become privatized. As the news points out to me this morning, SS is now in the red. No, I mean in the RED. That is, the infamous 2017 insolvency of SS has already come. That's right, as of today, they are claiming that SS output is exceeding SS tax input. We have just surpassed the infamous "tipping point" that wasn't supposed to happen until 2017.

Further, remove unions from government. It should be illegal for ANY "public" service position to be unionized! They are already unionized! … hello, they are part of the "union" that IS the United States of America! Get rid of the fricken unions already! You will save hundreds of billions of dollars per year.

Government employment should be brought into line with private employment. Get rid of all of the perks! Even the playing field!

They may be personally conservative, but they vote Dem/left.

we buyoff egypts government to the toon of $2 billion a year. it keeps them from causing trouble. a real bargin imho. I would love a simular deal with Iran.

20% pay cut across the board. Sounds good to me. And while we're at it, lets cut out all the "unnecassary staff" of our politicians. And while we are at it, why don't our public services try to live on a budget freeze for the next three years and stop spending our money unnecessarily.

I know for a fact that when public services have a good year they spend it all and don't put away funds for a rainy day…they just ask for a smaller raise the next year. That's our money, people.

time to cut the fat.

It will also mean more foreclosures and make your property values go down further.

Chad………The point is why are government employees immune from economic downturns when non govt employees must tighten their belts, business owners are suffering, and then their taxes are raised so that govt employees can maintain a lifestyle 30% greater than the national average? We either go all in, cut across the board, or all go down. If this doesn't happen, then you are fomenting class warfare and pitting private citizens/employees against union represented public employees who continue to slop from the public trough.

It needs to be a 20% across the board cut. Otherwise the burocrats will cut teachers and cops to save themselves and there secrataries.

Amazing how quickly you want to go after your own neighbors working salaried positions – after the elites like AIG, banks, GM, etc….. got TRILLIONS. What a perfect little fascist enabler you are.

Again, I would agree IF we also:

Seize all the assets of the companies that OUTSOURCED OUR JOBS
Raise tariffs – produce everything domestically
Stop foreign aid.

if we just took care of ourselves we wouldn't be in this situation to begin with.

Where's the car…?

I always thought the car was the smarter of you two…then you go and prove it…

Fed-Ex…its not unionized…

Then they had too much to begin with…

Isn't that what you Progs always say…?

No. One has nothing to do with the other HasselToff.

What don't you get about–We're talking about saving money from public sector jobs?

Seizing assets? That's mighty National Socialist of you.

Agreed. Many of these people are shut-ins and only listen to Rush. I agree about the left – I hope the draw the comparison between the bail-outs to the tune of TRILLIONS of dollars and these people wanting to destroy people's meager government wages. It really plays in to the stereotype of Republicans. I used to think it was unfounded, but these are the people that outsourced the very private sector jobs these people think are morally superior. There will be no recovery until the jobs return no matter how much they play with the numbers or run up the stock market with tricks. These people are still following the pied piper of neoconism in a race to the bottom.

Everyone listen up don't worry about teachers and local cops. They are not paid by the federal government. They would not get a cut. I think we should cut 20-25% off all federal desk jockeys and 50% off all federal elected officials and their staff. Leave the federal law enforcement and military alone. The military is the only real responsibility the federal government has anyway. Get rid of the rest and STOP paying anything to worthless criminal liberal groups like ACORN NOW!

Oh I understand! It was sarcasm and I think you are deluding your self in believing that there are very many minimum wage jobs with the government. They always start higher than normal and move up rather quickly.

Excellent point! Thanks for adding that Mjolnir!

But the benefit package is better…let's cut that…too…

Time for austerity from the Government Employees…

Skin in the game…skin in the game…

And still no car…

Not enough qualified people…public schools, you know…

We might seriously look at financing our wars through Israel, though…they seem to be able to thrash Jihadists economically…

Why don't you harp on Iran as much as you do Israel?

Oh, i know.
You're the most blatant anti-Semite i have seen posting on this site. Comment after comment, you post the most retarded, anti-semitic bullshit.

Israel causes trouble? Even if that were true, the muslim arabs cause a lot of trouble and are pretty damn belligerent, but i never see you post about them.

By the way, Iran is the country threatening to wipe Israel off the map… oh, and don't forget how their president said israel is a stinking corpse…. so, yeah, continue with your typical anti-israeli rants. douche bag.

It was a third-generation Pontiac…the company the Obama caused to be mothballed…it had the "bowling ball" wheel covers…

Stop showing off how drunk you are on the kid's cameraphone…and go get the car…

Cutting waste would be a better idea. As an air traffic controller for the FAA for the last 22 years, I have seen our parking lot torn up and repaved three times. It was completely ripped up to a depth of about two feet, new subsoil and grading and repaving last year. Constant remodeling and renovating of the facility, including a complete teardown to the studs and rebuilding of our two main restrooms (which worked just fine) are just one example of unnecessary spending . However, because the FAA imposed it's own work rules and pay scales that cut entry level and transferring controllers pay by over 20%, I received no raise for three years while my utilities, food prices and other expenses continued to climb. Unlike almost all people in the workforce, air traffic controllers must retire by the month of their 56th birthday. We do not have the option of continuing to work at our profession. "Would you like fries with that" is something that many of us will be saying for many years after we are unwillingly forced into retirement at a pension that starts at about 1/3 of our former salaries. Most of us have mortgages that are longer than our careers. We may be civilian employees, but the "civl servants"are those elected and appointed fools who refuse to stop spending $500 on a toilet seat, or pad our legislation with billions in pork.

Like some one else said, the mass majority of Emergency Services are provided by local government and their pay varies greatly. Their pay is based on the local economy by your local government so a federal pay cut will not effect them.

I'm thinking dhasselhoff is a postal worker. It scares him to think of loosing his "precious" share of the pie. He only works as a part time employee and so he is Soro's troll on his days off.

Why no cuts in military pay? Reduce pay, not as many people willing to join, smaller military, we can't do as many wars, additional reductions in spending. A no brainer.

HasselDork, if only you'd posted your last sentence and left it at that…
China finances us and we're not about to engage in a trade war. More government fascism isn't the answer. You can't force manufacturing jobs, but you can create an environment where they can thrive. And, while we should force Europeans to pay for their own defense and retool foreign aid, we keep the peace (so to speak). Stop with the constant attacks on Israel.

There is no reason why these cuts could not be made. A pay scale is a pay scale if adjusted across the board it could be done. Don't confuse the issues with teacher contracts, that's a whole other issue.

the 20% should be for people who regularly get paper cuts, ot carpal tunnel. but then now many towns are now sending bills for service for firefighters, ambulance rides, and police calls. i wonder why we should even pay local taxes, if after the fleecing of tax dollars with utility bills, phone bills, sales taxes, eating out special taxes, rental car taxes, hotel room taxes, they still don't get enough to feed the monster, now they send out invoices for doing what i thought we were paying the taxes for in the first place. are they next going to send us a bill for the calculation of my property tax bill, and the money for the stamp and enevelope?

I assure you, there is not confusion on my part, with regard to teacher contracts. Teacher, and most other public employee, contracts are entirely part of the problem we're discussing here. Mandatory pay raises and excessive benefits are the direct result of these contracts.

So you're really advocating a 20 % cut of all salaries? You would still have people babysitting students in study hall, making double what a teacher makes. That is insanity. Its even crazier to do it on the tax payer dime.

My point is that a teacher is a much more valuable job than a study hall monitor. I don't really see the justification for paying someone twice as much as a teacher, for a job less valuable than the teacher's job. But if you can make the case, go ahead.

"when we cut federal, state, and local public employee pay by 20%.*"

That is straight from the article. He didn't just say federal.

that would be okay too, the company I worked for lost 40% of thier workforce and is still in it, why should the government be able to do the same thing,

FDR, upon election to his first term, cut government salaries by 15% across the board. He also completely revamped the bureaucracy eliminating unnecessary agencies, commissions and more.

How about we implement Fair Tax, which will start making 30-40 million illegals and all the drug dealers pay tax, freeze spending and then cut he pork out?

That would allow us to pay down the debt because revenue goes up and spending would go down.

Audit the Federal Reserve and make congressman's salaries the average of their constituents.

Anyone who runs on that platform will win in November.

Most government jobs are professional jobs. They actually make less than equivalent positions in the private sector.

That's brilliant. Use an axe to do surgery. Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it, along with a lot of unintended consequences. You better think this one through.

I assume you're planning to cut ALL federal employees' pay, including those deployed and their hazardous duty pay? Now that's a great way to show support for the troops, while you sit safely behind their protection.

Does the word "contract" mean anything to you? The federal regulations under which federal employees signed on constitute contracts. Breach thereof is grounds for a law suit, a REALLY BIG one. It could get VERY expensive.

Do that and you will find out just how much you really depend on we so-called leeches. There is a term with which you may become familiar: "Work to rule," which means doing EXACTLY what job descriptions entail, under the precise hours mandated. Cut pay 20% and you will get just that, and I guarantee you won't like it, at all, as the short term and longer term effects set in.

If the taxpayer had to pay for all the unpaid overtime and services that they get now rendered by most federal employees, the alternative of continuing to pay what you're currently paying federal employees would look like a real bargain.

Do this and be prepared for a HUGE wave of retirements well beyond the current mass exodus from federal service as boomers retire by the thousands each month. That pig in the python retirement bulge will be costly as their retirement is paid while new employees hired to replace them, or those promoted to higher-paying positions create new budget obligations. And this does not take into account the vast amounts of expertise that will depart, much of which is irreplaceable by just a new, warm body.

Along the same lines, let's cut the federal ownership of property by 20%. That is, sell off 20% of Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and other property owning federal agencies. This will increase the property tax rolls and decrease the management costs for federal agencies. This does not mean selling off our treasured National Parks. It means getting rid of land that would be better managed by private ownership.

I say we just cut out all retirement benefits for federal & state employees. Only private industry would offer pensions and any other retirement related extras, including medical. Presidents (& ONLY presidents) would get a 10 year severence package, no more. The only exceptions would be any & all military personnel & public safety. Period.

dhassel-dork, why do you even live in this country if you hate it so bad? now you want to bash the military. craw back into the wet crack you came out of.

I've seen this idea pop up here a couple of times and it is stupid, stupid, stupid. Are you sure Mr. Warstler isn't an Obama operative? You guys support this, and you've just handed Obama his second term. Congratulations. People who are calling for the ax to gov't salaries clearly don't work for the gov't. They probably wouldn't shame themselves that way. Here's the thing, a federal employee makes less that private sector employee with an equivalent job. Get that through your skulls. And a lot are veterans, like my husband. He chose a federal position so he could improve the quality of care for our veterans and active duty. He could make considerably more in the private sector. His salary has been cut already by 2%. There is a hiring freeze in most agencies. Do you even read the news, Mr. Warstler? There is also an implied sense of soft bigotry here that I'm picking up – most federal employees are lazy black people who vote Democrat, right? You are way out of your depth and will get your asses handed to you, if this is best you can do. You have to get deeper in the weeds, have a clue how government is run, strategically cut spending and reduce jobs. With this proposal, you're cutting a lot of federal employees off at the knees, including vets. So go ahead, the IED's didn't get everybody. You guys can finish them off. Thanks.

Couldn't agree with you more. This is probably the least thought out article on BG ever.

My point was that I was referring to federal bureaucrats not teachers. On the other hand 5th grade teachers that pull in $100,000 per year doesn't seem realistic to me either. (I know some) These are the same people who want to be called and treated like private sector professionals and act like government workers.

Sure, let's cut our underpaid miitary 20%, especially when they are overwhelmingly conservative. I'm a conservative and all for smaller gov't, but this is not a very well thought out idea. This is all starting to sound a bit like sour grapes to me.

http://federaljobs.net/

Check out this website and tell me this is equivalent to the private sector. Think again! This government has grown tremendously since you have last checked your stats!

The point is if something isn't done, nobody will be working…. we are spending more than we have….end of story….anarchy is all that will bring! So its better to take a pay cut than have nothing.

Here is another website just for fun!

http://www.cato.org/pubs/tbb/tbb-0605-35.pdf

Great idea, but worse than the salaries are the benefits. Specifically, the crippling legacy costs of government pensions. A government worker can retire in their early 40s with a full pension; and then can, and some do, go on to another government job, retire in their early 60s and receive two full pensions generously provided by we the taxpayers.

Perfect. I'll vote for anyone who promises this!

Next: raise the retirement age for all public employees, wean them from public pensions to 401(K) plans, …

"Slate’s Jacob Weisberg came unhinged on Friday and gave the country the finger.

“Down with the People!” he screams from Bill Gates lap. As Jacob sees it, we the people are demanding two mutually exclusive things: premium government services and tax cuts, and when we can’t have what we want, we become unruly children." ——————————————– I'm not surprised to see such a BS point being made from someone from Slate. WE do not want premium government services, WE want smaller government and the tax cuts that would come from the shrinking of Big Government. Of course I am speaking as a conservative which means I am self reliant and want government out of my life. I'm sure I don't speak for the left who do want the premium government services from their big nanny government since they are not the ones stuck with the bill.

Why not just cut public employees – period? We have far too many public employees. I would fire half of them and then cut the pay of the remaining half by half.
OOPS, I forgot about SEIU. They do not allow these unionized "on the dole" shirkers to be fired.
Then the first thing to do is get rid of Government Unions. They are the real problem. Teacher's unions too.
Nobody working for me should belong to a union. If they want a union, go into the private sector. My employees work for my at my pleasure. Even D'bama works for me. I think he should be paying us for being president. He certainly is costing us a huge amount.

The concept is fabulous and could be applied to municipal governments, too;
however, the percentage might have to be progressive and/or phased in over
several years, depending on the economy.

Also, an excellent idea given was to eliminate some of these government agency
jobs where the employees sit around and kill time. There ought to be a concerted
effort by some people to just occasionally "visit" these offices and observe the
activity of our civil servants.

Of course, eliminating some government jobs would add to the unemployment
numbers for awhile, but the good news is that the private sector would get a
breath of fresh air and new life. In no time, with a decreased burden of national
debt, the small businesses would be invigorated to start adding new workers.

Then you would see what we are looking for – the end of the recession.

NO, most government jobs are get them off the street jobs and give them somewhere to go every morning from Mon to Fri.

Nothing wrong with that I suppose, its' just that when a buck changes from hand to the another, there should be a widget (in most cases).

Please do not think government jobs are strictly comprised of folks with PHDs.

And if they do have a PHD it is generally from the University of K-Mart.

I had a "government" job for 7.5 years once….. almost went brain dead

FDR

came into office in 1932.

and ended the depression in… what year????

The only thing we have to fear is……again???

How about 50% to bring it in line with the private sector, then 25% more to factor in slacking, then raise the military pay for enlisted men 100%

and Mexico

and Africa

and Haiti

and India

and……

when it comes to aid, think about it folks, isn't it, in this case….

better to give than to receive.

How about mandating that every government agency cut down its regulations to no more than 50 8×10 pages of 10 point type each? Or even better, so that actual human beings who suffer under their regulations have a prayer of knowing the law they may be breaking, make it so the sum total of regulations that affects Americans is no more than 100 pages of 10 point type (8×10" pages with 1" margins)?

Cut down the corporate tax rate to zero. It's not like there are going to be any profits to tax while Zero and the dim bulbs are in office anyway. Plus, the vast majority of money collected from corporate taxes comes from salary increases that workers would have been paid but weren't because the government monster ate their raises.

And how about defunding and dissolving all the un-Constitutional departments? Start with Education, Energy, the EPA, HHS, Labor, and Endowment for the Arts. All of these departments are nothing more than slush funds for progressives in any case. Let the progressives pay for their own slush funds.

yes, it is called job security.

My apologies, I misunderstood your point. I couldn't agree more- teachers making over 100k at a public school is ridiculous. Even more so when you factor in how poorly so many of our public schools perform. Federal bureaucrats, state bureaucrats, teachers, whoever… they all have ridiculous benefits, and they all get their mandatory raises every year. They've been promised too much, and we definitely can't afford it.

I guess my problem with the initial idea of cutting every person's pay by 20% is that it doesn't solve the problem of those bureaucrats or 5th grade teachers who makes 100k or more. They would still be making a large amount of money… it just doesn't make sense to pay someone 80k when you can find someone to do the job just as good for 35k.

I interpreted that statement as all government workers vote dem/left… which i'm pretty sure isn't the case. Not where I live, anyway.

here is one name for the ONE that I have not yet seen "OBLAMA"
He has blamed Bush for everything, especially for the debt. What every media and Oblama don't mention is that Oblama and the Dems ran congress for Bush's last two years! Though in all fairness we cannot ascribe too much of that to Oblama because he was not around much of that time, he was too busy buying the presidency.

Bullshit! Have you ever walked into a large gov. office? Professional my ass. Most of these people could be replaced with contract workers and their benefit packages would go to half of what they are getting now. Have you ever called the Social Admin. or Medicare on the phone? Professional my ass!

If government on any level does not cut back on pay and retirement soon they will see the taxpayers not bothering to send them the money…Not just as a form of protest; they just will not be able to.Where are the jobs that are going to pay for these outrageouse salaries and retirements??

So its the old leftist arguement that since one side did it then the other side should do it too. We ALL got screwed by the bank bailout but that is no reason to not start some where on reducing the deficit. Has anyone ever heard of a call for a gov. employee pay cut? Hell no and you won't. Between their retirement and insurance packages they are so far above private sector workers it's not funny.

You have my vote across the board, with an exception for military personnel. There is no reason the public sector should out earn the private sector for the same job. You could even argue that considering that public sector jobs are more secure they should receive less pay.

Unfortunately, it seems like a great idea except for that it fails on a fundamental level, and belies the same linear and flawed thinking that Dems engage in all the time. Human behavior always adapts to changing circumstances, and what will happen is that high-paid state employees like doctors & nurses (who work for state universities and hospitals), lawyers, scientists, etc will just leave working for the state/gov't, rather than take a 20% pay cut. This will create a huge shortage of employees that are necessary for a wide variety of services, and the only way to draw them in will be to pay them more, which is why federal pay was structured the way it was in the first place – pay them well and give them benefits and tenure, so that they gov't can attract the best and the brightest (that didn't work so well, but it was the original idea). The only thing consistent about human behavior is self-interest, and self-interest will steer people away from those jobs. It's why Canadian doctors (most of whom are employees of the gov't) come in droves to work in the US – they can make more money.

In CA, the state has cut employee pay by up to 10%, and that is already causing higher paid, necessary professionals who work for the state to consider leaving. At 20%, you'll have a mass exodus.

i wondered why no one wrote about cutting pay for government workers… I hope this is just a start of the movement to reduce pay and benefits for both UNION WORKERS and GOVERNMENT WORKERS. That would be fair, since, most of us in private work places have had our pay frozen solid for years!!!

I'm a public school teacher and a tea party conservative. Not all are liberals. Be careful about my paycheck! I work hard for my pittance of a salary, and I'm not living the luxurious life.

Also, I served 22 years in the military. So much for choosing careers with service to one's country and community in mind! Don't touch my military pension either!! How many of you spent any time in the military? How many of you went to college on your free time? We are in a mess, but most federal employees are just regular people and aren't the bad guys.

So, inspector, why didn't you look on the web site to begin with? That would have meant one less call to Medicare from someone who didn't really need assistance. Basically, you were wasting their time.

Hey, check it out for yourself!

at: http://www.legistorm.com This site shows what every member of congress pays their staff members. It's absurd! In my state of California, one of Barbara Boxer's employees made over $164,000 last year, not including benefits such as pension or health care. It is outrageous what government employees make annually. check it out! I doubt there are ANY minimum wage jobs in the govt. Based on what I found in my own state it's staggering. No wonder we're going broke in California.

http://www.legistorm.com/

It's not just the left that won't agree. We're a very conservative family, I'm a stay-at-home mom taking care of three children who have autism. My husband works in the public library system, so he is a NYC public employee. He makes only 41,000/year and we are struggling to make ends meet on his salary living in one of the outer boroughs of NYC. If you cut his salary 20% we'd be even worse off. I can't work outside the home because I need to be there for my disabled kids. Not all public employees are rich, you know. I don't know who these teachers are who are making six figure salaries but our family is nowhere near that income level. Don't punish us all; have a heart, guys.

You are entitled to your opinion, but not to your own facts. In 2009, due to the massive increase in the number of federal employees making more than $US 100,000/ yr (see, for example: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-12-1... the average federal worker's pay has risen to $71,206 without adjustment for benefits, compared with $40,331 in the private sector. Of course, Federal workers enjoy the same job security as any government bureaucrat. This is going to continue unless it is checked and stopped, and it must be stopped. It's obvious that you've never considered how this disparity can be viewed as a threat to the ability of a free people to govern themselves through their representatives; this nexus between the political class and the bureaucracy is irretrievably corrupt and comes at the expense of the very liberty of the people who they both presumably serve.

Every dollar spent by the gov't is 20% waste and 30% fraud, SO CUT ALL GOV'T PAY BY 50%, except the military.

More from the "race to the bottom" crowd. You really are a piece of work – they got you working for the destruction of your own society.

I think common union backed concepts that are very false and add to the difficulty of getting anything done are that teachers get paid little (they work 8 months a year, and get awesome benefits, so remember to factor that in) and government employees getting paid less than private sector jobs. We need to stop government employees being unionized (it takes away the workers vs management compromises for one thing) stop pensions (not a typical job benefit and many don't pay anything into social security), stop automatic pay raises that depend only on how long you've been working not on the quality of your work (this encourages and leads to government employees not having to keep up their knowledge or doing a good job, therefore being uncompetitive in the private job market) the difficulty of firing government employees and the automatic employee growth.

I thought conservatives were against class warfare. Why are you all whining that government employees get decent wages and benefits. You all had the same opportunity to get the jobs we have. I spent 8 years in the Marine Corps and learned how to do my job. I know work for the federal government. I don't want to hear your whining and complaining about my pay. If we have it so good, then learn a skill and join us.

You know, it just struck me. Liberals are usually the ones who want to punish the rich with high taxes. Since when did conservatives start wanting to punish people who make more money… because they happen to be public employees?

They never start at minimum! Thanks for site karen!

I know this to be true – 100 percent true.

ut oh, not that dreaded 'losing teachers, and firemen and policemen too'….
It appears you are truly missing the bigger picture here. I'll leave it to the others to try and educate you, I know a die hard lib when I read on ~

OMG! I was having this very conversation with my husband this week. I am so glad to see it in an article. Don't let this thought die Mr. Warstler, keep beating the drum! The last thing I want is leave my children and grandchild this horrible burden we have created!

How about privatizing as many government agencies as possible….start with the US Postal Service. Hand it over to UPS, let brown run it and it will soon start turning a profit. Profit….that's a novel concept!

7 years as a civil servant.

No, I did not mean "all", just the majority.

Paper pushers get 20% less to spend.

People who produce wealth get 20% more to produce wealth with, resulting in increased tax revenue.

It's a wonder that the politicians don't go for it, they would have more to spend.

There are many government employees that are overpaid and can never be fired. However, I think that those that protect us – military, police, firefighteres – should not be lumped under this 20% cut. They make hardly enough to live on as it is, especially the military – what are they supposed to do with 20% less? There are many hardworking government employees that earn a pittance – it's the paper pushers that accomplish nothing and are dumber than a box of rocks that need to be cut – not just the 20%, but cut period.

Right on Morgan! Re-read his article. Everyone keeps missing the point – cut FEDERAL employee pay excluding all military. Why? Because all other Federal employees have what the private sector does not – guaranteed retirement benefits. We used to use the pension as the incentive to pay a lower wage to Federal employees ( and, most other State and Local govs).

But, no more. Government employees get the best wages, healthcare AND pension so that now they out earn the average private sector worker by around $20K. That's about $50K vs. $70K plus all of the trimmings. Most private sector workers will not retire until 65. Many gov't workers retire at 50 or 55, get another job and double dip until 65.

Unions should be illegal for government workers. What's a more secure job than working for the Government? All the other rules make it virtually impossible to be fired. Trust me. I've seen the "brain trusts" working at my City Hall, at the DMV, at the Social Security office, at the IRS, at the County Courts…they be hard pressed to be employed elsewhere. So why do they need union protection? Just to squeeze the taxpayer more and more without regard to where all of that money comes from.

Oh, heavens to Betsy, a fellow Washingtonian! I still think there is no better state, despite the Democratic control of King County on our elections. The east side being the best side, of course!

Let's see. Cut the emphasis on the leading killer of Americans. Vehicle fatalities. You probably believe you should be able to smoke your "medical marijuana", then hop in your car to zip over to the liquor store.

Speed, drugs, and alcohol kill more innocent people each day than you can imagine. Get real.

do you have anything to back up that statement or are you just speculating?

20% may sound like a lot but its probably not enough:

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/2009121...
The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker's pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.

40/71 = 56% ish… so 40% seems pretty reasonable. There I just doubled your savings. What fun.

And end prevailing wage pay on government contract jobs.

Refute me!

Great comments NorCalGal: We have the same dunces here in ID. In Fact, many of our Govt sector employees are retired from their CA Gov jobs. Great work if you can get it I suppose…..

I am in the WW. So, either the KRP or the Big D for 30 min either way.

Randy12 is westside Washington! Glad to meet you Michael in law! We have our work cut out for us in this year of 2010! I am pleased to meet you! Thank you for your service as a Policeman! I appreciate that!

"Since when did conservatives start wanting to punish people who make more money… because they happen to be public employees? "

Now seems like a good time to start to me. I like the phased in approach though.

Since Government employees make more than 30 % more on average than private sector the 20% cut is very reasonable. If they dont like it, tough they can quit and join the real world.

How about cutting Wall Street bonuses by 95%! Wall street caused the financial mess we are in so about having them share some of the economic pain!

Or cut 20% of the jobs — not just reduce salaries — so you get rid of the legacy pension and benefit costs.

That is what is driving us into the ditch.

I love the idea. And I would say it is about time.

Cut ALL federal, state and local government salaries by 40%. That would put them about equal to similar jobs in the private sector. And reduce their benefits to something equal to the private sector as well. I've been writing to all blogs and my reps about this for weeks. Someone needs to submit a bill in congress for this and see how all the "lawmakers" stand on it.

I read each and every comment here, and I'm going to preface my remarks so put away your tomatoes.

1) I am a DIE HARD conservative. Go ahead, ask me.

2) Despite this, my husband (who converted me to conservatism) is a public employee – he's a hard working cop. What he sees in one day would age your average private sector cubicle worker by a year.

3) I used to work as a teacher…until I discovered that the grass was way greener on the other side…how green, you ask? When I left teaching, I was making approximately $24,000 and putting in 60 hour weeks on average – which, if you count my 3 months "off" during the year, still averages to close to 40 hour work weeks for a full year of employment.

I got hired on at a private sector company, doing much easier work, at about $29,500 – so an instant pay raise of $5,000 – with comparable benefits. Within three years I was making $40,000 with that same company. If I had stayed with teaching, my salary that year would have been around $27,000. I loved teaching and was good at it, but I also realized that people with additional talents to teaching could maximize those more in the private sector because they weren't tied to an antiquated compensation system, i.e., tenure-based only pay.

4) My husband has received about 1-2% annual COLA increases the past 5 years or so, and maybe about a .5% raise each year – all of which has been negated by the corresponding rise in health insurance deductibles and premiums for our family.

So, this is my take…Morgan Warstler's blanket call to "cut federal, state, and local public employee pay by 20%.*" is just irresponsible, based on my personal experience. If he really means bloated bureaucratic positions should be cut altogether, I'm in agreement. But for the rank and file who educate your kids and who protect your streets and provide vital services, there need to be more creative ways to appropriately reward and compensate them for jobs well done – and to help them to transition to the private sector when jobs are not well done.

Just because one's a public servant doesn't make him a slave. It also doesn't entitle him to artificially out of line salaries and benefits. And telling me I've got to balance the bloat caused by overpaid bureaucrats at the Federal and state levels on my already breaking back just because you've lumped me in with that lot is insulting, uninformed, and overkill.

This is the kind of rhetoric that ends up being dismissed as demagoguery. Which is too bad, because if it were presented with a little more restraint and precision, it would have a better chance with a wider and willing audience.

I know this to be true. Thanks for writing it out.

None of us were talking about city employees, we are talking Federal employees. City and County employees don't make squat, I know because my husband was a County Road Supt. for 18 years. We raised three kids on it like you are doing. Its the Fed's we are talking about. The last thing I want is my Fire Dept, Police Dept and others gone, they are providing services we need.

Looking4Sanity: I'm a state employee, and I'd go for this plan. And — mortgage defaults? I'd guess all of us on the government payroll will just have to live like the rest of the country.

I'm glan that folks like Dhasselhoff take the time to post their comments. I would otherwise forget that people like him exist.

Okay, thank you.

how bout not only cutting slaries 20 percent, how but cuttineg every federal program that has no constitutional business being run by the federal government. Imagine everything gone but the armed services and fbi and cia.
In my opinion if it has nothing to do with the sercuring and protecting of the rights of Americans, it is unconstitutional and should be shut down. Imagine how much money we would have if the Dept of Education, HUD, EPA and the countless list of others were shut down, and the federal government did what the founders intended, protect the country. Wow that would be a novel idea, revolutionary even/

Just close down Department of Homeland Security.

your problem is that if you pay the governmnet less they are more susceptible to lobbyist… It's like paying cops less, they will then be more susceptible to criminals..

Actually, paying them more might do some good, by mitigating the affect of lobbyists.. I would love to see a bonus formula for politicians, then we'll get some bipartisanship. hehe..

Good idea in theory, although I don't think economically it will work.

Did I say that applies to disabled veterans? However, if that disabled veteran is just picking up the paycheck and not working then he or she should be assessed accordingly just like everyone else.

okay this is why you shouldn't post at 2:30 am after waking up in the middle of the night. I mean phs stands for public health service. And I failed to state that I would support privatization of much of these government funded jobs, but until that happens the employees in this health service and in other services such as the fda (the people that actually go after criminals in the food industry especially, not all of the employees for the fda), serve a real purpose and their work is needed. If their salaries are the same or under private sector jobs than their salaries shouldn't be cut. Then when some of these organizations are privatized they can just get new jobs instead of people in some areas losing the health services and such that they don't get any other way. Now if they are being paid a lot more than comparable private jobs, then their salaries could probably stand to be cut.

[...] Read the rest here: » A Formula for Real Economic Growth: Cut Public Employee Pay by … [...]

This is a horrible idea. Whose pay would be cut? Yes, my family is a gov paid family, but we are on the military and DOD side of the pay and we get paid based on what civilian people in the same field working in the same area get paid. Cut our pay by 20% and we lose our home, we lose everything, cut our pay by 20% and yes, we quit. Why? Because we will get paid 20% more in the private sector. Thanks, but no thanks. A far better solution would be to reduce the pay of congress to $25,000 a year (this is not supposed to be a carreer anyways) and buy a big dorm for the people of congress to live in so they do not have to pay for housing. Cut the president's pay to $50,000 a year (again, this is not supposed to be a career). Amend the constitution to say that no taxes or public funds can be used for anything other than defense (including checking items and food entering and leaving the country), roads and infrastructure (bridges, but no libraries or museums), and the basic running of government (electricity and heat for the buildings and a generous budget for the white house to greet people and travel to other countres to meet with foreign leeders).

Time for a little "edyukashun."

New System federal employees, which is most of them these days have a retirement divided into thirds:

1/3 = Social Security
1/3 = Agency retirement based on high three salary and length of service
1/3 = Thrift Savings Plan – a 401-K

That's not much different, if at all, from what business pays, is it? It sure as hell doesn't seem "overly generous" from where I sit, now eligible for retirement but unable to do so since my 401-K, like everyone else's, cratered when the market plunged.

Federal salaries vary also according to location and the cost of living in each. The annual cost of living increase is pretty much zilch since it is designed to track the consumer price index so feds get to break even, at best.

Federal job security has protections built in so feds can resist different administrations' political appointees' overzealousness when they try to push laws and regs past their boundaries. Feds can resist that sort of thing withouth (theoretically) being fired. That's for your protection which is a very good thing now that the current administration seems hell-bent on CHANGE.

Feds forego what the private sector supposedly gets when the good times roll – increased union bargaining power, bonuses, salary competition for scarce skills, etc. In exchange, they are supposed to have better job security when the bad times roll, like now. Take that away and you've removed a major incentive to remain in federal service.

For a long time, Congress balanced the budget on the backs of federal employees, especially the senior civil service where management expertise and corporate memories reside. Congress avoided voting themselves pay raises and instead kept voting liberal increases in their expense allowances, which are loosely accounted for.

We didn't hear anyone bitching about that or demanding fair treatment for feds. Where the hell were all of you as that situation periodically unfolds?

Get some accurate info and some reasonable perspective, people. You're falling for an old canard and making cheap political hay at the expense of a mostly hard-working and loyal federal workforce.

Okay. How about this. Cut all fed, st and local gov salaries above $100k by 35%, $90-100k by 25%, $80-90k by 20%, $70-80k by 15% and $60-70k by 10% (if needed $50-60k by 5%). Somebody please ficure out this idea might save. And do not forget, we are also talking about the POTUS and crew, Congressmen, Senators, state and local Legislators including city governments. All the way from the top to the bottom of $50k. Going any lower, I feel, would only add to the ranks of the unemployed, gov. assisted, ect.

Sorry, Joe — Government regulation of Wall Street and banks, as well as its meddling in the housing markets, caused this mess.

My husband's shop was remodeled 2 years ago with a huge addition put on it. Now they are going to build a brand new one 30 miles away for a few million dollars. Ya think they could have not done the first renovation or just not do the second? They also force my husband to run his shop at 40% of what it needs to complete the job. They have to travel all over the state to get and fix equipment, deploy when they are told to deploy (last time he was gone from home for over 22 months) He is home about 60-75% of the year and he gets paid the same as the guy doing his job in the civilian world but he has to work twice as hard to get the work done. All of these people here wanting to cut federal pay by 20% are morons. Most of the federal employees are making the same or even a little less than their civilian counterpart. It is the Nacy Pelosies (with her 2+ million dollar travel budget) who make the money. You could cut congressional pay by 80% and solve most of the problems we face. A career in politics would no longer be an option for many people and we would not have a Murtha draining our budget till he dies because he would do his term and let someone else have a turn.

Spoken like a true dunce. What would your idea of a war that has meaning be? I know you really havent quite thought that through, have you?

I don't agree. My husband did 20 years in the military and we were basically on food stamps then. Now he is in the Dept of Defense (as a ATC ) and makes a good wage. There are a lot of federal employees that aren't making big bucks. Many places to cut spending in our government first, before we look at federal employees. (liked the idea of privatizing departments)

Quoting …"If we cut civil serpents' pay by 20%, many may threaten to strike. "

Good …let them … then do what Regan did with the air traffic controllers. .FIRE THM on the spot !

We have WAY more Civil Servants than need anyway.

This is brilliant!! Start printing the bumper stickers. Why aren't we hearing ideas like this from our pols rep/dems.

Aww, that's cute, almost everyone posting on this site is too brainwashed to see the value of any government service except those that directly and visibly protect the value of their overpriced property! I say cut law enforcement pay by 50%. Let's see how you selfish people like anarchy. No money for roads either, to drive your precious cars on. Hey, we can privatise the roads! Bring it on! Have you ever considered the fact that the land you are now squatting on was once taken over by force by the government? That's right, that overpriced house that is sitting on "your" land that you wouldn't even own were it not for the hated government. It used to belong to American Indians.

OK…everyone on this blog…Let's not stop there…how about everyone on this blog that is drawing VA, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or any other Federal or State benefit…Refuse to accept them anymore!!

Let's outsource all of the public employees jobs to India and Pakistan. Let's get private contractors to replace the public employees!!! Replace Congress with Big Business CEOs (that may happen with the recent Supreme Court decision)

Hear, Hear…Now how much money would all that save?

You're a group of whiners that don't even realize what your Local, State, and Federal employees do for you on a daily basis.

Yeah if you know how I can get 80% in retirement lay it on me! I'd love to hear how that works… because last I checked my govt earnings statement, I'm making $35,000/yr less than my contractor/private sector counterparts, I pay taxes, and I pay into Social Security. I have mediocre health coverage and awful dental.

The majority Govt positions are professional positions… lawyers, accountants, engineers, scientists, etc.

Private sector includes many many more wage-grade jobs that earn significantly less.

You need to compare job description to job description to make an apples-to-apples comparison. Do Gov accountants make more than private accountants? Do gov engineers make more than private engineers?

Agreed… it's been shown that only a fraction of the money we give to other countries ever actually helps the people of those countries anyway. When we donated rice and other supplies to N Korea, they stripped all the indicators off the packages that showed origin, to keep their people in the dark. It's disgusting. Keep that foreign aid here, and help our own people who need it.

But don't give it away. Reform Welfare to require people to use the money to earn skills to get a job, if they don't, the get cut off after a year. Banned from the system. In prisons, prisoners spend 10 hours a day learning skills (welding, carpentry, masonry, mechanical trades, printing, manufacturing, etc) and set them up with companies who hire ex-convicts (even provide a small tax break for hiring an ex con) to keep them from returning to prison, which is a huge burden on our govt. Common sense programs that yield measurable results. No results? Cut or change the program. Enforce accountability.

Here here! Well said.

I don't recall anyone calling for cutting Federal pay in 2001 during the tech boom and the real estate explosion. Funny, I don't recall anybody flocking from private sector to govt jobs either.

Yeah, those people didn't put in countless hours of unpaid overtime testing every piece of equipment he has from his shoelaces to his rifle. They didn't risk their lives testing the aircraft and helicopters that put him where he is and will bring him home. They didn't risk their lives going into theater to gather real-time intelligence about how equipment is being used, how it's breaking, and getting that information back to give him even better stuff to make him more lethal and keep him more safe than yesterday.

All those FOB POGS, cut their salaries.. and watch them go home at 4:59pm every day. Watch their dedication degrade ever so slightly, so maybe they don't measure the pressure his rifle generates quite as accurately, or the vibration in the rotor of a helicopter, or the effectiveness of the armor on his truck, or some other tiny detail that directly impacts his mission success, and his getting home in as many pieces as he left in.

Mainstream media, like what's owned by Rupert Murdock?

Maybe it's a zionist plot. You watch too much x files.

Great idea! So you're going to raise my retirement age from 59 1/2 to what?

And I don't have a pension plan… so how are you going to ween me?

You're right. The govt shouldn't have any way to attract the best and brightest, most talented people.

ESPECIALLY in the areas of intelligence and national defense. Why should the DOD or CIA be able to hire top scientists or engineers? It's not like they support the military in any way. It's not like they do anything to protect their country.

Great! Well-thought out comments, you're doing great work son.

You're right. In no way should the govt be able to attract the best and brightest scientists, engineers, economists or international negotiators. Who needs talented people in the govt???

Yeah, get rid of all those senior guys who have the corporate memory and experience. That'll do wonders, especially in highly-technical areas within the DOD, CIA, FBI, NGA, DIA…

Average of $71,000/yr… maybe, but you have to look at the makeup of the employees. Gov is mostly professionals.. very few wage grade employees compared to private sector, who draw down the average. $71K is not a lot for an engineer, scientist, chemist or other professional with an advanced degree, a clean record, and can maintain a security clearance. Private sector engineers can make $85-95K after 5 years.

Likewise, $101K is not a lot for an attorney or economist. First year law associates get $135K from private firms, over $250K after 5 years.

So if you want to talk real world wages, compare similar job descriptions, not gross averages where you're comparing skilled professionals with cab drivers.

You say there are "plenty of us out here that would gladly take their places," which just isn't true. Especially not back in the early 2000s during the tech and real estate booms, which gov employees didn't benefit from. You make the choice, go gov and have a steady ride, or go private and ride the peaks and the valleys.

"Military is the only real responsibility the fed gov has anyway."

Umm, what about the court system, that upholds the Constitution?

What about the legislative branch, which crafts the laws?

What about the Federal Reserve and the Mint?

What about intelligence services and the Dept of Justice?