It is as if the public sector fails to understand – or simply doesn’t care – that private sector workers have been hit in the gut by the recession. That fact, coupled with the failed economic policies of the current administration, have extended the unemployment misery, which is at 9.6 percent in our state. Yet, the head of the American Federation of Government Employees’ is vowing to lobby for a federal pay raise — even saying he’ll push to make it retroactive to January 2013 if a raise is approved later in the year. And, as you might suspect, Mr. Cox and his group are supporting Mr. Obama for president.

Despite his displeasure with Obama’s pay freeze extension, Cox said re-electing Obama — as well as other lawmakers friendly to federal employees — is AFGE’s top priority. Although AFGE disagrees with the pay freeze and Obama’s proposal to increase federal employees’ retirement contributions by 1.2 percentage points, Cox said Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would be worse.

“I believe that [Romney] would totally decimate the federal government,” Cox said.