And a big FU to you too, Republican House

The evil morons in the House have voted once again to cut spending by hurting the middle class.

The House on Wednesday voted to freeze the wages of federal workers for a third straight year and put members of Congress on record as opposing a boost in their $174,000 annual salaries.

Republican supporters said their measure, which would freeze federal worker wages through 2013, would save taxpayers $26 billion. It would not apply to military personnel.

The nation's 2.3 million federal civilian workers currently are in the second year of a wage freeze imposed as part of efforts to trim budget deficits. Sponsors said the two-year halt in wage increases will save the government $60 billion.

"We must act now to extend the pay freeze on federal workers and on members' salaries until Washington finally gets its finances under control," said Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., the bill's sponsor.Stupid bastards. Because federal workers don't have car payments, or mortgages, or medical bills, or children in college. You want to cap your own ridiculous salaries? Go ahead. But leave the rest of us alone. We DO our jobs.

They're not really trying to balance the budget. They're trying to make federal service so unattractive that people leave the government. Then the government functions less efficiently and the Republicans have an excuse to gut it.

The other trick in the legislation was the freeze on their own salaries. The Republicans know that the Democrats don't want to cut federal pay, but if they vote against the bill, it looks like Democrats are protecting their own salaries. When the Democrats tried to push a clean bill to freeze Congressional salaries, the Republicans defeated it.

As I said, stupid bastards.