Some Democrats want to give federal workers an 8.7% pay raise. Make no mistake—we want everyone to do well, but it appears we have a government that is picking those who will suffer under the Democrats’ historic inflation and those who will not. Federal workers received a 4.6% raise from President Biden for 2023. If passed, this legislation would provide the additional raise in 2024.
That’s awfully nice of them considering Democratic policy caused the inflation that has crushed real wages of ordinary Americans. But for Democrats, the only people that matter are the people in the government bureaucracy. With so many of our social and economic problems the result of government being disconnected from the public at large, this effort to entrench unfairness should be expected.
Ordinary Americans have been suffering for generations with politicians more enamored with their Washington DC playground than with their constituents. Now, courtesy of Washington’s general lack of self-awareness, every day we get a reminder, or two, or a hundred, of their disconnection from Americans and the nation itself.
This latest confession of not-giving-a-damn about ordinary Americans arrives courtesy of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and their “Federal Adjustment of Income Rates,” legislation allowing the 8.7% pay raise for 2 million federal workers. Americans who are not part of the permanent bureaucracy will have to continue to suffer under the worst inflation in 40 years. To single out federal workers for relief as everyone else suffers confirms the growing American unease that the federal government has lost touch with everything that matters.
But don’t fret, we are told there are special reasons why this pay raise is needed for federal workers. According to Connelly, "For years now, federal employees have risked their health and safety working on the front lines of this pandemic. They were subjected to the Trump administration’s cruel personal attacks, unsafe work environments, pay freezes, government shutdowns, sequestration cuts, furloughs and mindless across-the-board hiring freezes,” reported Fox News.
Oh, so it’s to soothe the emotional injuries caused by… Trump. Well, okey-dokey then. With that, Connelly’s rant confirms that what the Democrats are doing to the country has always been about revenge for Trump. Not only do they continue to persecute him, they are punishing Americans writ large for daring to think for ourselves and rejecting the swamp in 2016. That’s what the border crisis in particular is all about. Border security was Trump’s signature issue and historic success and now border security and the border itself is obliterated. Attempting to prove Trump wrong on his economic success would also explain the Democrats’ inexplicable and dangerous spending obsession.
Also raising eyebrows is the claim the raise is required because federal workers suffered on the “front line” during COVID. Perhaps those involved in healthcare, but the GAO confirms what we already knew—all federal agencies relied heavily on “telework,” some comprising as much as 80% of total work time.
We all remember those on the front lines of COVID—the cashiers and workers at supermarkets. Those working at pharmacies. First responders, firefighters, police officers, and EMTs, among so many other ordinary Americans doing their jobs every day no matter what. But they too suffer because of a self-absorbed permanent Washington bureaucracy, and policies which eat away at our pocket book, quality of life, and even hope for a decent future for our families.
Keep in mind, ordinary Americans have had over $4000 a year disappear from their buying power as real wages are crushed by Biden’s monster inflation. The Heritage Foundation reported in the Fall of 2022: “New economic numbers show that the average American has lost the equivalent of $4,200 in annual income under the Biden administration because of inflation and higher interest rates… Consumer prices have risen 12.7% since January 2021, significantly faster than wages, so that the average American worker has lost $3,000 in annual purchasing power… The higher interest rates and borrowing costs have effectively reduced the average American’s purchasing power another $1,200 on an annualized basis.”
Moreover, Heritage’s E.J. Antoni warns, “Simply put, working Americans are $4,200 poorer today than when Biden took office. This financial catastrophe for American families is the direct result of a president and Congress addicted to spending our money, combined with a Federal Reserve compliantly enabling this addiction by printing more dollars. Washington recklessly spent trillions of dollars it did not have and paid for it with newly printed money, causing rampant inflation that has destroyed people’s purchasing power and jeopardized Americans’ financial futures.”
Joe Biden’s campaign for the presidency was premised on getting us back to “normalcy.” For them, it appears ‘normal’ is destroying the economy, facilitating an explosion of crime, a dissolved southern border, and a bumbling foreign policy leading us into more chaos and war.
We have a choice about whether or not we accept this warped and cancerous ‘normal’ or if we will once again reject their incompetence. In 2024, which will be here faster than you think, we will have another chance to kick these vandals to the curb.
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