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At 12:29 PM 12/5/2002 -0500, you wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: CPBalto at aol.com [mailto:CPBalto at aol.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 10:40 AM
> > To: CPBalto at aol.com
> > Subject: "Let's YOU Sacrifice" says our President.
> >
> >
> > From the American Federation of Government Employees:
> >
> > STATEMENT OF AFGE NATIONAL PRESIDENT BOBBY L. HARNAGE ON
> > BONUSES TO POLITICAL
> > APPOINTEES
> >
> > WASHINGTON, D.C.-The day after Thanksgiving, President
> > Bush told us America was at war and that rank and file
> > federal employees would have to sacrifice a quarter of the
> > pay adjustment that Congress had approved for 2003. Three
> > days later we learn that no sacrifice is necessary when it
> > comes tohly paid patronage jobs hig.
> >
> > As disappointing and indefensible as this disparate
> > treatment is, it is entirely consistent with President Bush's
> > issues of economic justice. Whether it's tax cuts for the
> > rich or privatizing 850,000 jobs to boost the fortunes of
> > contractors, this administration knows how to enrich the rich
> > and to impoverish working families.
> >
> > This move is another demonstration of the Enron Syndrome
> > that permeates
> > this administration---one set of rules and numbers for the
> > elite and another
> > set for the rest of us.
> >
> > President Bush insisted that the single most important
> > thing America
> > could do to improve homeland security was to give him
> > absolute authority over
> > how to set pay for federal workers. Today he has shown
> > America how he uses
> > managerial flexibility. He lavishes $25,000 bonuses on elite
> > political appointees, who already make $140,000, and slices
> > off a quarter of the pay adjustment Congress recommended for
> > regular federal workers whose average
> > salaries are about a third of that amount.
> >
> > The people getting these big bonuses are the ones who
> > have their jobs
> > solely because of their political connections and
> > affiliations. The folks who
> > are getting the shaft are the regular rank and file federal
> > workers who
> > competed to get their jobs based on merit-what they know and
> > what they're
> > able to do for the American people.
> >
> > There is no justification for the President to use
> > taxpayer money to pay political appointees for carrying out
> > his political agenda. The centerpiece of this agenda is to
> > ruin the lives and careers of 850,000 American workers by
> > privatizing their jobs. The President's privatization agenda
> > is not about saving money---it's about moving money away from
> > the public sector and into
> > the hands of politically well connected contractors.
> >