Speaker John Boehner's House takes time out from protecting millionaires to screw federal employees, Democrats. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
It's a stellar day in the
House of Representatives. Denigrating
poor people, repealing health care reform, and putting the hurt on the middle class, as usual.
The latter is a particularly pernicious demonstration of trying to score political points. They're attempting to extend the federal workers pay freeze by one more year, and they're doing it in a way to try to make Democrats look bad. Roll Call [sub. required] reports that they included a Congressional pay freeze in the bill, a provision which, as Democrats point out, could be handled as a separate bill.
“I would favor a stand-alone bill that would cut Congressional salaries as I have consistently done since I’ve been in Congress, but I’m not going to penalize federal employees,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat who represents a district in Northern Virginia that is home to many federal employees. [...]
At a weekly meeting with reporters Tuesday, House Minority WhipSteny Hoyer (D-Md.) accused Republicans of including the Congressional pay freeze extension in the legislation as an attempt to force Democrats’ hands.
“To include [in the bill] a freeze of our salary is very clever. ... It will be perceived as, if you’re voting against the bill, you’re voting to raise your own salary,” Hoyer said. “A very good 30-second ad.”
The federal worker pay freeze, imposed by President Obama two years ago, is still in effect for this year. So this legislation is at best gratuitous.
So rather than doing anything that might actually help real people, Republicans are working hard to make sure that the only middle class people in America who don't have to struggle quite as much as their private sector counterparts feel some pain, too.
The vote will occur at the end of the day. Since it's being presented under a suspension of the rules, it will require a two-thirds majority vote, requiring about 50 Democratic votes for passage.