Kevin Haggerty writes for Biz Pac Review about President Biden’s latest tone-deaf action.
A pandering “bottom up…middle out” pay bump for federal employees celebrated by President Joe Biden was panned as a “slap in the face to ordinary Americans” heading into an election year.
With the swipe of a pen Thursday, the president delivered an early Christmas present to federal workers even larger than the year before in the form of a 5.2% taxpayer-funded raise. While sycophants celebrated the highest increase of its kind since 1980, as in around the last time inflation was soaring, realists doused cold water on the move.
Following the signing of the executive order on adjustments of certain rates of pay, the social media account Biden’s Wins had taken to X on Monday to laud the president’s commitment to his historically devastating ‘build back better’ spiel.
“BREAKING: President Biden just enacted a historic 5.2% pay raise for federal workers. This is the largest pay raise since 1980. This is another example of President Biden’s commitment to building an economy from the bottom up and middle out,” the account touted.
The government’s business news daily, Government Executive, noted that the bump that averaged 5.2%, 0.6% higher than last year, was second only to President Jimmy Carter’s 9.1% raise at the end of his administration, “which itself marked a 20-year high,” and would go into effect with the first full pay period of the new year.
Social media users were ready to add even more clarity as they broke down how taking money from producers straining to make ends meet to give to others, falling short of meeting the cost of living increase and calling it a raise, hardly constituted a victory.
“This isn’t a ‘win,’” wrote one user, calling out the account’s name. “The rest of the US workers — who PAY federal workers salaries — didn’t get 5.2% raises. Many got no raise at all — and were lucky if they kept their jobs.”
