Obama calls for two year federal pay freeze--but why stop there?

In a press conference I watched an hour ago, President Obama called for a two-year pay freeze for federal employees. This is something he should have called right after his inauguration when the economy was already in a deep recession. To be fair, skyrocketing government salaries go back to President George W. Bush's time in office.

But one congressman is way ahead of Obama on salary cost-control.

From a Mike Coffman press release:

Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) issued the following statement today reacting to President Obama’s announcement of a two year pay freeze for civilian federal workers. Coffman has been outspoken on the need for federal employees not to be exempt or sheltered from the realities of life in today’s economy:

No doubt, this does not go far enough but his pay freeze is a positive first step by a President who has added over 100,000 new federal employees at wages and benefits much higher than are available in the private sector for doing similar work.

In September, Coffman introduced a bill that would subject federal civilian employees to a two week furlough in 2011, reduce salaries of members of Congress by 10 percent, and save taxpayers more than $5.5 billion. H.R. 6134 would make federal civilian employees subject to a non-consecutive two week furlough in 2011, correspondingly reduce appropriations for salaries and expenses for offices of the legislative branch, and provide a 10 percent reduction in pay for Members of Congress.

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