Political Quotes

“I'm prepared to wrap up and yield back, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I'm worried about the future of the Federal workforce's continued denigration of public service. Continued whacking away at compensation and benefits that make it an attractive career choice for so many young people is going to make it much harder to recruit and retain the skilled workforce of the future. And despite what my colleague just indicated--I'm not quite sure where he got his statistics--the Federal Salary Council, which looks at Federal salaries every year, concluded that Federal employees earned, in 2011, 26.3 percent less than their private sector counterparts and, this year, 34.6 percent less. A CBO study found that people in the Federal workforce with a Ph.D. degree earn 23 percent less than their private sector counterparts, and if you had a bachelor's degree, roughly 23 percent less, and only in the high school level did they actually earn more, 21 percent more. {time} 1310 Actually, we've got a problem. As we look at the baby boom generation getting ready to retire, 47 percent of the entire existing workforce is eligible for retirement over this next decade. How will we recruit and retain that workforce if we're going to continue to use them not only as a piggy bank to finance the deficit, but perhaps more disgracefully as a punching bag in terms of disparagement of service? We are far away from John Kennedy's call to serve your country. Mr.…”