Obama to freeze federal salaries. Yawn.

Color me not impressed please.  In a move set to appease the angry middle class the Obama Administration has announced a salary freeze.

The freeze, which requires congressional approval, applies to civilian federal employees -- including non-military personel serving at the Department of Defense. The White House says the move will save $2 billion during the rest of the current fiscal year and $28 billion over the next five years.

So not giving raises to federal employees while the private sector is experiencing austerity across the board will save us money?  Recognize the sheer absurdity of the statement.  It is the equivalent of a teenager coming up to his parents and demanding praise and recognition because he decided that he will not borrow any additional money from the parents.  Is this really what America's political accomplishments are being reduced to?

Of course Obama and now the infamous 'jobs saved' mantra has taken political spin to an entirely new level so none of this surprises me. 

Yet federal salaries represent much more a growing inequality between the political class and the private sector than waste.  More importantly none of this should be news by now because USA Today has reported several times on the growing imbalance and surge in Federal salaries. Accordingly:

•Pay. The average federal salary has grown 33% faster than inflation since 2000. USA TODAY reported in March that the federal government pays an average of 20% more than private firms for comparable occupations. The analysis did not consider differences in experience and education.

•Total compensation. Federal compensation has grown 36.9% since 2000 after adjusting for inflation, compared with 8.8% for private workers.

So the problem has been well known and in fact bolstered by politicians.  Apparently creating a Soviet style political class where workers go just to get paid is part of a deeper political agenda.  One sure way to create a permanent voting bloc is to steal from private worker Peter to pay public worker Paul.  Whenever you reach a point in a country where one can say "I should work for the Federal government, that is where the money is" is a point that very few return from peacefully. 

Incidentally, a headline featuring 2 Billion in "savings" as some kind of fiscal sanity to reign in government spending in the midst of a 1.5 Trillion (with a T) deficit is just funny.

If Congress actually gave a damn, they would laugh at this and counter with an immediate move to balance private and public pay.  A move that would result in the average salary to drop from 80k/year to 50k/year for all federal employees and a reduction in benefits from 40k/year to 10k/year.  This is not only fair, but multiplied by 2 million people can result in over one hundred billion in savings.  Real savings.  Anything less is political posturing.