AFGE statement on Obama budget plan cutting federal retirement

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. today issued the following statement in response to reports that President Obama will propose $35 billion in cuts to federal employee retirement as part of his fiscal 2014 budget to be unveiled next week:

"The poets remind us that it is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.  But it is hard to forgive our friend President Obama when his administration continues to act more and more like our enemies.

"His administration has frozen our pay for three years. It oversaw and approved shifting retirement system costs for new employees that will lower their salaries by 2.3% forever. The administration signed the Budget Control Act that brought us the sequester. It is implementing the sequester by imposing lengthy furloughs on federal workers while leaving the larger and costlier contractor workforce untouched. It pushes a cruel cut to Social Security, veterans', and federal employee retirement benefits through the chained CPI.

"And now, a final act of betrayal. The White House proposes a fiscal 2014 budget with $35 billion MORE in retirement system cuts, accelerating the race to the bottom for federal workers and their families.

"We cannot understand how an administration that claims to stand up for working and middle class Americans can simultaneously push policies that would impose such enormous pain on its own workforce.

"This proposal is as unnecessary as it is cruel, and we urge lawmakers to reject it entirely."

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 670,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

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SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees

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