I have a question about the Fed workers' pay freeze.

[spartan61]

I have read many posts about it on DU and heard it on MSNBC. The one thing I have not read or heard being said is about the Social Security freeze. For the second year in a row, SS recipents are not getting a raise and the payments are frozen. For those people who don't get SS because they taught and retired in the 15 states where teachers cannot buy into SS, the pension increases are also tied to the SS COLA. Therefore, no increase there, either. (BTW, those teachers who get Medicare also pay $110.50 for their Medicare while people getting SS pay $96.40. This started in Jan., 2010) Why so much hype about the Fed workers getting a pay freeze for two years and not a word about the pay freeze for a second year for SS recipents? For many of the SS recipents, this is their only income.

[Safetykitten]

1. Do not anger/question the Federal workers in any way.

[littlewolf]

3. didn't you get the memo ???

[midnight]

2. I didn't know this... But I want to know why those living

off social security or working for a living will have to pay extra via limited income so our bankers can live better...

[katandmoon]

4. Federal retirees got no COLA for 2010 and aren't getting one for 2011.

[Overseas]

5. When the other cruel freezes come up we discuss them too. Fed workers are the newest

in the series of Gotta-Be-Republican cruelties. That's why they're hot on the board now.

Those freezes on SS were also cruel and stupid. Both freezes cut into economic stimulus. That money paid out is spent right away, keeping local economies going, keeping desperate citizens alive.

But cruel Republicans want us to do that because we just couldn't bear raising taxes on the Top 5%. They told us those tax cuts created jobs and we're supposed to believe them, ignoring all evidence to the contrary.

The cruel Republicans want those of us in the Bottom 90 to fight about which of us deserves the cuts and not look at cutting the funds for the Top 5.

When actually, the most stimulative to the economy are those things that fools trying to act Republican have done-- freezing SS and payments to those benchmarked to it, letting unemployment benefits expire, freezing pay of government workers.

We spend our raises and COLAs right away. That stimulates demand and helps our economy.