Obama Gives Raise to Biden, Congress as Fiscal Cliff Looms

Imagine you are working for a company that is going bankrupt, but everyone you work with and your bosses are getting pay raises. Seem absurd? 

Not if you work for the failing federal government, because President Obama has decreed that Vice President Biden, members of Congress, and most federal workers are getting raises for 2013.

As the U.S. government is losing its luster on the bond market and as the fiscal cliff looms, President Obama issued an executive order to give everyone raises.

Obama has generously bestowed a $6,379 per year raise on Grampa Joe; he’s given members of the House a $900 increase; and he’s doled out a .5 percent pay increase to federal workers. 

Jeryl Bier does the math on the raises federal workers will get.

RATES OF BASIC PAY FOR THE EXECUTIVE SCHEDULE 2012
Level I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  $199,700
Level II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  179,700
Level III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  165,300
Level IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  155,500
Level V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145,700

Here are the rates in the just-signed Executive Order:

RATES OF BASIC PAY FOR THE EXECUTIVE SCHEDULE 2013
Level I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $200,700
Level II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180,600
Level III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166,100
Level IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156,300
Level V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146,400

The pay raises will take effect on March 27, 2013.

As the President and the House seek to rearrange the deck chairs on this Titanic ship of state, Obama has decided it is a good idea to throw more coal into the furnaces. It’s full steam ahead and damn the financial torpedoes.