Pay freeze for feds a good start

President Barack Obama’s proposal to freeze the pay of 2 million federal employees is a solid, symbolic stroke to begin the deficit battle, but it surely doesn’t go far enough and we’ll believe it when we see it pass Congress.

It was a crafty political move to get in front of an incoming GOP House majority, similar to Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s proposal to eliminate the state’s business equipment tax.

“The hard truth is that getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifice, and that sacrifice must be shared by the employees of the federal government,” the president stated this week.

Amen to that. If they have survived the recession, most private sector businesses of all sizes have scaled back with pay freezes, pay cuts and layoffs. Many state and local governments made similar moves. But the federal government has long been practically immune to any kind of freeze, much less reductions, in its growth or the size of its overall payroll. Stimulus spending, along with other recent spending, only seemed to feed the federal beast further.

That must come to an end if the country is going to sincerely grapple with record annual deficits that amounted to $1.3 trillion this year and $1.4 trillion last year, and a cumulative national debt of $13.8 trillion.

The proposed pay freeze is projected to save about $5 billion over the next two years, a drop in the bucket when contrasted with the word “trillion.”

But it is a step in the right direction, and well-received among some Republican lawmakers who want a pay freeze promptly passed by the lame-duck Congress. But will it happen? Republicans have little power in the lame-duck session — and even next year, they will only control the House, while Democrats will retain their majority in the Senate.

Leaders of the 600,000 member American Federation of Government Employees and the 150,000-member National Treasury Employees promptly railed against the pay freeze and vowed to seek support from union-friendly Democrats.

Hopefully, there will be some spine-stiffening resistance in the Senate, and better yet, congressional leaders could take the proposal a step further. The proposed pay freeze would not apply to the military, postal workers, nor members of Congress and thousands of congressional staffers.

At the very least, lawmakers could apply the freeze to Congress. That would make a statement, and set a tone of sincerity in dealing with the federal government’s spending issues.

How about it, Congress? We are waiting to hear your answer.