Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I reluctantly supported the conference agreement because it is absolutely essential that we extend the payroll tax holiday and unemployment insurance benefits. The stakes are too high to do otherwise for our economic recovery and for millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet. We cannot abandon them or reverse progress during this difficult time. However, I strongly oppose the decision to pick the pockets of Federal workers yet again just to offset the cost of 10 months of unemployment insurance benefits. I am not opposed to offsetting the costs, but I believe shared sacrifice is essential and a simple matter of fairness and decency. Unfortunately, once again, rather than asking millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share of taxes, some of my colleagues insisted on taxing America's dedicated middle-class public servants. Future Federal employees will be required to pay an additional 2.3 percent of their income toward their pensions. That means most employees will pay a total of 3.1 percent of their salaries, and that is in addition to the 6.2 percent they pay for Social Security retirement benefits. This agreement effectively lowers the Federal pay scale by 2.3 percent going forward, and this comes after Federal wages already have been frozen for 2 years.…”