AFGE activists defeated the severe cuts to federal employees' pay, retirement, and health care after making tens of thousands of phone calls to their members of Congress urging them not to accept any final budget that cuts federal employee compensation.
While the budget resolution, which passed Congress Oct. 26, does not include the cuts to federal workers’ pay, retirement, and health care that were called for in the original House bill, this is no time to celebrate, said AFGE President J. David Cox Sr.
“In voting for this irresponsible budget resolution, lawmakers have gone on record supporting a plan that raises taxes on middle-class workers, cuts services largely benefiting lower-income Americans, and delivers huge tax cuts to the top 1 percent – all while increasing the nation’s deficit," he said.
The budget would add up to $1.5 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, even while slashing hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs that Americans rely on.
The budget also sets the stage for a tax reform plan that would deliver huge tax cuts to the wealthiest of the wealthy while cutting take-home pay for most working-class Americans.
“America’s working families deserve better than a budget that will make billionaires like the Koch brothers even richer while slashing health care and other services that benefit our nation’s oldest and poorest citizens,” Cox added.