Trump thanks federal employees with $143.5 billion in retirement cuts.

[elleng]

(Old 'news' May 8)

'In a letter to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) on Friday, Office of Personnel Management Director Jeff T.H. Pon pushed four proposals that, over 10 years, would significantly cut retirement benefits for 2.6 million federal retirees and survivors.

Saying he wants “to bring Federal benefits more in line with the private sector,” Pon proposed:

Eliminating supplements for Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) annuitants who retire before being eligible for Social Security benefits.
Reducing federal pensions by basing them on workers’ basic pay five-year averages instead of three years.
Increasing employee retirement contributions with no increase in benefits. The plan would sharply boost the 0.8 percent of basic pay most FERS employees contribute. The letter makes the impact on federal retirees clear. “Under this proposal, FERS employee deduction rates will increase by 1 percent per year until they reach 7.25 percent of basic pay. … This proposal would require FERS employees to fund a greater portion of their retirement benefit.”
Reducing or eliminating retirement cost-of-living adjustments. The administration plans “to reduce the cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) by one half of one percent and to eliminate COLAs under the Federal Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) for current and future retirees.”
In addition to these retirement cuts, the administration also has proposed freezing federal pay next year. Employees suffered a three-year freeze on basic pay rates under the Obama administration. With next year’s planned freeze, federal employees would have been hit with $246 billion in cuts to wages and benefits, complained J. David Cox Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which released Pon’s letter after getting it from a congressional source.'

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/05/08/trump-thanks-federal-employees-with-143-5-billion-in-retirement-cuts/?utm_term=.2619421c6775

[Iliyah]

1. Damn

[BumRushDaShow]

2. That should be DOA in the Senate. nt

[Wounded Bear]

3. Private sector retirement benefits suck...

unless you are of the investor/CEO class. Then you get golden parachutes. Workers get pissed on.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Someone's gotta pay for those tax cuts.

[KT2000]

5. Federal employees

whose jobs include carrying a gun are forced to retire at age 57. As the age for SS increases they are left with quite a gap so they get a supplement and that is what they want to cut completely - among other things.

[gratuitous]

6. Thank you for your underpaid service

Now that your working days are done, we're going to filch the pension and retirement benefits that we promised you all those years ago because tax cuts for the wealthy. Too bad you trusted in the government to hold up its end of the contract after you had done everything you were obligated to do.

The logic of the chiseler who doesn't want to honor his promises.