Tis the Season to Bash Feds

It must be the holiday season as it seems that the rethuglicans in Congress are once again taking aim at Federal employees. As a compromise to extending the payroll tax holiday that has been championed by President Obama, Senate ruthuglicans, led by Sen. Dean Heller (Tehadist – NV), introduced legislation to “pay” for the extension by freezing Federal salaries for an additional 3 years (on top of the 2 year freeze instituted last January) and cut 200,000 Federal jobs. And get this, these asshats also want to make sure that millionaires won’t be eligible for food stamps! Now when was the last time a millionaire either qualified or applied for food stamps?

“If they’re nameless and faceless federal employees it’s one thing. But if it happens to be the FBI agent who’s in the midst of a very important investigation to keep this country safe, it’s another,” Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said. “Those are the people whose jobs they would do away with for the payroll tax cut because they can’t bring themselves to raise taxes on the wealthiest people in America by one penny.”

Thankfully, this proposal was voted down today in the Senate. But so was the Democrats proposal which would have paid for the extension by imposing a 3.25 percent tax on incomes over $1 million. So the rethuglican-teahadists senators voted to increase taxes on the middle class.

Last year at this time, the rethuglicans were demanding that the salaries of Federal employees be rolled back, claiming, wrongfully, that Federal employees are overpaid. Well, I put in more hours on the job each week than any Congressman or Senator. No disrespect to Chris, Tom, and John, but the vast majority of the 535 don’t do squat when Congress isn’t in session.

Well, this is one civil servant who’s tired of being a punching bag for the teabaggers and their lackeys serving in Congress. To paraphrase the AARP ad, there are 1.3 million of us and we vote. And we’ll remember who’s held us hostage twice this year with phony threats to shut down the government. Congress can pass all of the laws they want, but without civil servants who do the real work (guarding the borders, guarding prisoners, inspecting the food chain, ensuring that seniors get their Social Security and Medicare benefits, and more), you have nothing.