The talk is that the Republicans want to pay for the payroll tax cut extension by dipping into the pensions of federal employees.
On unemployment benefits, which will cost about $30 billion, Democrats were resisting GOP efforts to cut into pension plans of federal workers, but aides suggested that another pay freeze was more likely. Republicans have demanded about $20 billion in savings from Medicare to finance the move to stabilize doctor rates, while Democrats have demanded that any such cuts not reduce benefits for elderly patients in the health-care program.I guess federal employees suck, says the party of Timothy McVeigh. And I don't drop that name lightly. The GOP hated government long before people, often Republicans, started acting on that hate. There's only one party in town that routinely trash talks federal employees, attacking judges but just as happy to take a swipe at their own staffs on the Hill or the entire federal workforce (such as they did when they froze pay for Hill employees and federal employees a few years back). And that party is the GOP.
The Republicans do tend to hate people, so there is some legitimate loathing of federal workers, just as they loathe gays, women who aren't barefoot and pregnant, Latinos, blacks, Jews who aren't for Jesus, Hollywood (read: Jews), the media, New York City (again, they mean Jews), and "elites" (who usually live in NYC and Hollywood, if you get my drift). And second, the GOP does a good job of constantly harping on a single point that feeds a larger agenda. They want to cut back any and every government program they can, regardless of who it hurts, and the best way to do that is to inspire lots of little Timothy McVeighs who are just this side of the violence.
So why do the Dems enable this all the time? Why give in to the GOP, freeze federal salaries, and further reinforce their argument that federal employees suck? And just as bad, why do the Republicans' own staff tolerate their own bosses hating on them so much? Unless they're party and parcel of the GOP culture of hate as well.
