Asserting that this was a difficult decision, Obama put the freeze into the context of a broader effort to trim government costs across the board, including freezing salaries for all senior White House officials last year, reducing improper government payments by $50 billion by the end of 2012, and putting forward over $1 trillion in deficit reduction into the 2011 budget.
"I am committed to doing my part," the president said Monday. But "the hard truth is that getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifices" -- including some on the part of federal employees.
According to the White House, the freeze -- which negates a planned 1.2 percent increase in 2011 for 2.1 million workers -- will save $2 billion for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, $28 billion over the next five years and more than $60 billion over the next 10.
The announcement comes as the White House is under increasing pressure to tackle the mounting federal deficit and play ball with Republican leaders -- including Sen. Mitch McConnell and incoming Speaker John Boehner -- who have called for a renewed focus on the deficit during the next session of Congress. Specifically, the White House has been gearing up for a fight with the GOP over the Bush tax cuts -- set to expire at the end of this year. At the heart of the debate is whether to extend the cuts for both middle- and upper-income earners and what effect a full extension will have on the growing deficit.
Also this week, the president's bipartisan fiscal commission is due to make a series of recommendations for trimming the size of the deficit. Early outlines of the recommendations from the commission's chairmen, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, met with sharp criticism from Democrats, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, while a majority of Americans said they thought the proposed cuts were "a bad idea."
(The Bowles-Simpson report outlined cuts to Medicare, Social Security, and defense spending. Tax increases included higher gasoline taxes, lowering the corporate tax rate but limiting business tax deductions, and placing a limit on the tax deduction for homeowners with mortgages over $500,000.)
White House officials denied that the timing of the pay-freeze announcement is tied to congressional pressure, the Bush tax-cut debate or the deficit commission's report. "There is a legal requirement for the president to submit to the Hill the locality pay increase for 2011, and to decide on the fiscal year 2012 pay by the end of this month," said OMB Deputy Director for Management Jeffrey Zients. "Where we are in the budget process is the driver" for this announcement, he explained.
Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer further rebuffed assertions that Obama's announcement was made to preempt the fiscal commission's recommendations, saying, "This is not viewed as anticipating anything [the commission] may or may not present."
Either way, Obama will be having his share of budgetary debate this week: On Tuesday he is scheduled to have a highly anticipated meeting with Republican leaders McConnell and Boehner -- one where discussion of the deficit is sure to be featured prominently. Previewing the meeting, the president noted, "Everyone's going to have to cooperate."
politicsdaily.com