If you are a federal employee, you need to read this:
GOP offers bill cutting pensions for new federal employees
WASHINGTON – New legislation introduced in the Senate would slash pensions for all federal employees hired starting 2013, invoking the argument that benefits for government workers are too generous and are a large contributor to budget deficits.
The "Public-Private Employee Retirement Parity Act," offered Thursday by Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) and co-sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), would eliminate all pensions under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS).
Apparently, it is not enough to eliminate pensions for state employees. Now the GOP feels confident enough to eliminate federal pensions, too. At what point will all workers stand up and say "No more!"?
This announcement was accompanied with the old line about "overpaid" federal government workers making 20-25% more than typical private employees.
I realize we have a lot on our plate right now: the crisis in Japan, the conflict in Libya, the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and many others here at home struggling to find any work at all. So I realize it is difficult to get people excited about federal workers losing part of their retirement.
Perhaps another issue is that many feel complacent because they think this will go nowhere with the Democrats in control of the Senate and Obama in the White House. Perhaps they are right. But should we really take the chance and ignore this attack on labor?
Furthermore, we need to start stressing this point: The problem isn’t that public-sector workers have too much retirement security. It’s that everyone else has too little.