Obama Orders Pay Raise for Biden and Members of Congress,

President Barack Obama issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees, in effect giving some federal workers a raise. One federal worker now to receive a pay increase is Vice President Joe Biden. According to a senior Republican congressional aide who has reviewed the executive order and consulted with the Congressional Budget Office, Obama's pay raise will cost $11 billion. "The CBO told us that the President’s pay raise for federal workers will cost $11 billion over ten years," says the aide.

The aide explains, "On the cost-estimate, CBO says the (discretionary) cost of the .5% pay-hike the President is calling for in the Exec Order – relative to a freeze – is about $500m in FY 2013 and $11 billion over the ten years from FY 13 - FY 22. The reason why the FY ’13 savings is only $500 million is because the pay hike as proposed by the President’s Exec Order would not go into effect until April 1st, 2013 - when the current CR expires. So it only covers half the fiscal year. The annualized cost of the pay hike is about $1 billion/year."

Cowboys and Tea Parties comment: With federal law enforcement agencies facing payroll deficits in the tens of millons of dollars, per agency, Obama issues an executive order, therefore bypassing Congress, to effectively grant pay raises. And not only grant pay raises, but giving them to the least productive of government workers. Amazing. But this holds through true with the historical precedent of the last act of failed nation's being to loot the treasury.