Is the White House expecting more bad news when the new jobs report comes out on Friday?
Late Tuesday, President Obama issued an order instructing the heads of executive agencies to suspend bonuses and pay raises for all political appointees through the end of 2011. He also said he will propose that Congress freeze the salaries of all political appointees for the next year.
There are 2,900 political appointees, a tiny sliver of the total federal civilian workforce of about 2 million employees, and the move is expected to save only $1.9 million.
But with 15 million people unemployed, half of them jobless for more than six months, Obama must have decided that it was important to dispel the image of Rome on the Potomac.
“At a time when so many American families are struggling to make ends meet,’’ Obama wrote in a public memorandum to agency chiefs, “I am committed to making sure the Federal Government is spending the taxpayers' money wisely and carefully… Like households and businesses across the country, the Federal Government is tightening its belt.”
Visit the Vault home page here.
