Coburn Plans Federal Hiring and Wage Freeze

Reader Comments
Back to blog

Great so Veterans preference was flawed by itself. Now Veterans discharged earlier than they envisioned for health reasons, are being told sorry, but there are too many federal employees, go elsewhere. Fabulous!

nony of NC 9:42PM December 11, 2010

How does a federal hiring freeze create jobs in a time of mass unemployment?

Tom of MO 5:37PM November 03, 2010

Tom Coburn is murdering people in Haiti. Do I care if he freezes Federal Employees? The first one fired should be him.

freddie cook of OH 4:40PM November 02, 2010

I think the general public gets Congress confused with Federal Employees. Federal Employees are generally hard working. Congressmen on the other hand do not represent their constituents, have driven the US into the ground and need to start with themselves first. There are simply too many Congressmen. That's why we have gridlock. Only lobbyists and the upper crust have access to Congressmen, so why not reduce the number and at the same time reduce their pay 1/2 of a percent for every day the budget is late. Also reduce their pay another 1/2 % for evey $1M dollars of overextending the budget. If we cut the number of Congressman in half, we should save at least $100M over 10 years and see budgets on time and balanced.

Steve K of VA 10:40PM October 28, 2010

Senator Coburn is my hero. First freeze. Then start cutting 1% a month. As federal workers wages go down (including Congress), they will start looking for other jobs. The ones who leave will not be missed.

Balto of MO 10:23PM October 28, 2010

The sad fact is that , at every level, government does not work. It is a 'Create work' program, specifically for minorities. The Mineral Mangement Service sleeps on the job, snorts coke and does hookers provided by oil companies. We know what happened in the gulf. That particular oil rig was scheduled to receive a FREAKIN' SAFETY AWARD from the MSM!! The Security and Exchange Commision sleeps on the job, snorts coke and does hookers provided by Wall St. Wall St. greedy cheats bankrupt millions of americans and what happens? They get 100's of Billions of Dollars from the Working taxpayers funneled to them by the Federal Government to pay themselves Billions in Bonuses! We could shrink the Federal government by 80% and not miss one beat! There is an ABSOLUTELY EVIL NEXUS between Wall ST and Wash DC and what is the common denominator? The Ivy Freakin' League!!! Want to cure America? 1.)Abolish the IRS 2.) Shrink FEDZILLA by 80% 3.) Turn Wash DC into a museum and move the Fed Gov. to Omaha or Des Moines or Yankton S.D. or anywhere centrally located with orders to kill any lobbyists who set foot!!!

tj saine of OH 4:04PM October 28, 2010

I received an email a couple of days ago and I'm sharing it here. Sounds good to me:
Congressional Reform Act of 2010
1. Term Limits.
12 years only, one of the possible options below..
A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms
2. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

Earleen of UT 1:04PM October 28, 2010

Smaller government sounds fine until ... there's an emergency and then it's why can't the government fix the broken well 5,000 feet under the sea or the leaves break in New Orleans, or some one is looking for a job with the federal government for themselves or a family member, or people want faster service for passports and such, or we want better intel to stop terrorist, or cures and vaccines for diseases, better alternative energy sources, better national parks, safe food, water and air, satelites for communication and GPS, safe roads and bridges and reliable public transportation and so on. As we've seen business's first priority is making money - not the public good.
And really, what do people think the government does with the taxes? It pays people, who buy products and pay for services, it buys products and pays for services (mostly American).

Roger Paul of WV 9:10AM October 28, 2010

Joe Smith of KY: I LOVE your insight. Spot on! Why, with less government workers, especially at DoD, and those multi-billion dollar companies that we pay for overhead and profit to, it is important that we squander our money to corporations, that the American public has to pay profit and overhead to. Now, I know the American public would be thrilled that all of the profit that these companies whom will take over govt will not have a positive affect on those employees of those corps. After all, isnt it the American dream that CEOs get bigger and richer while paying their people a few bones and then get rid of them before they retire!? Its a DREAM! Sign me up! Oh and aftger the rich get richer, make sure that the American public clearly understands that they paid for the rich to get richer-compliments of the government and the republican politicians. After all, those corps padded their coffers pretty good during elections and its the LEAST the repub policitians can do, which is to ensure that the corps get govt contracts. I have dealt with govt contracts for YEARS and the public would be glad to know that they have paid HUNDREDS of MILLIONS in profit and overhead on taxpayer dime and guess what..the Ameican Public STILL got laid off/fired.

meso madd of MD 3:45AM October 28, 2010

Hi-
I love Senator Coburn's idea!
Fewer federal employees and more money to government contractors!
Lockheed Martin raked in over $41 BILLION in tax dollars last year.
Boeing raked in over $25 BILLION in tax dollars last year.
Northrop raked in over $22 BILLION in tax dollars last year.
Here's the list, read it for yourself and you can see the pigs at the trough:
http://www.govexec.com/features/0810-15/0810-15s1s1.htm
Senator Coburn is correct-- we should have only a handful of federal employees overseeing how these companies use our tax dollars. Contract oversight is meaningless. You can trust these folks. There's no need to look over their shoulders.
And, let me be clear, I am not accusing Senator Coburn of being a cheap whore for Lockheed. I do not know if he pockets more money from government contractrators in amounts any larger than the other losers in Congress.

Joe Smith of KY 9:14PM October 27, 2010