With that in mind today President Obama has decided to make another huge mistake in giving things up before ever sitting at the table. Worse yet is that once again he seems determined to stab the very folks who supported him in the back in the process. You see, today President Obama has decided to freeze federal pay for the foreseeable future:

President Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for civilian federal workers on Monday as he sought to address concerns over sky-high deficit spending and appeal to Republican leaders to find a common approach to restoring the nation’s economic and fiscal health.

He called federal workers "patriots who love their country" but added that "I’m asking civil servants to do what they’ve always done" and sacrifice for the good of the nation.

http://www.nytimes.com/...

This means one of the only sectors of workers not to see their wages stagnate will now see them do so. This also means that there will be yet more people with less money to help our economy recover. The sad part is that actually this will do almost nothing to help America's debt problem:

The pay freeze will save $2 billion in the current fiscal year that ends in September 2011, $28 billion over five years and more than $60 billion over 10 years, according to Jeffrey Zients, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and the government’s chief performance officer. That represents just a tiny dent in a $1.3 trillion annual deficit but it offers a symbolic gesture toward public anger over unemployment, the anemic economic recovery and rising national debt.

What this move does do is seemingly validate Republican talking points on federal workers. You see, Republicans in government and on talk radio simply hate federal workers. Why, because they can bargain for wages and benefits and thus have higher average salaries than private sector workers:

Mr. Edwards found that federal civilian workers had an average annual wage of $81,258 in 2009, compared with $50,464 for the nation’s private-sector workers. Average federal salaries rose 58 percent from 2000 to 2009, compared with 30 percent in the private sector, according to his study.

Which means that it appears as if President Obama is conceding the point to Republicans that these workers simply make too much money. The actual problem is not that federal workers make too much money it is that other workers DO NOT!! Why does the President not address huge wage discrepency between top and bottom instead of vilifying those workers who HAVE managed to achieve more fairness in pay?? The fact of the matter is that actually these workers are far from wealthy and are being unfairly scapegoated to try and protect the real culprits:

Mr. Gage said the notion that federal employees make too much money "is a myth," especially in light of million-dollar bonuses paid to Wall Street executives who he said helped trigger the financial crisis that plunged the nation into recession. A typical border patrol officer makes $34,000 a year, a nursing assistant makes $27,000 and a mine inspector makes $38,000, Mr. Gage said. "We’re an easy scapegoat," he said. "We weren’t the ones who got us into this fix."

Which begs another question. If Mr. Obama is so keen on folks making sacrifices will he now expect some concessions from the other side?? Namely the Bush Tax Cuts for the rich. Will he now insist on letting them expire and refuse to sign anything that doesn't do just that??

The fact of the matter Mr. President is it was not these, or any working men and women in this country that has caused the problems that we are facing. These problems started at the top and trickled down. In fact, that was the only thing that ever did. It is true that America needs to "sacrifice" but as with the problems in our country these sacrifices too should "trickle-down".

This is exactly what has made Obama look like such a weak President. Not only does he not seem to mind compromising without recieving anything in return but he has a much more alarming trait. He seems to share the Republican belief that workers have caused our nation's problems. Maybe it is not that Obama is not strong enough to demand anything in return for "compromises", unfortunately it really appears as if he never wanted anything in return to begin with.