AFGE Statement on Simpson-Bowles Deficit Reduction Plan

WASHINGTON – American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. today issued the following statement on the latest rehash of the failed deficit reduction proposal from ex-Senator Alan Simpson and Morgan Stanley Director Erskine Bowles:

Mr. Simpson and Mr. Bowles seem to have missed the fact that America had an election last November and that voters overwhelmingly rejected the regressive and idiotic ideas they were peddling on behalf of their corporate masters. We rejected more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. We rejected cuts in Social Security and Medicare benefits. We rejected taking away earned retirement benefits from public employees. We rejected an accelerated race to the bottom for the middle class and the working poor.

It seems that Bowles and Simpson will not stop until federal employees lose almost half of their retirement benefits, until hundreds of thousands of federal employees are thrown out of work, and millions of Americans either never retire or are poorer and more insecure in retirement because the Social Security and Medicare benefits which they paid for, and on which they hoped to rely, are slashed.

The more than 670,000 federal and D.C. government employees our union represents could not be more thoroughly opposed to every single proposal advanced by this dastardly duo. Further spending cuts to lower the living standards of working and middle class households, and further tax cuts for the rich and powerful, are despicable ideas. We urge Congress to ignore them in their entirety.

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The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 670,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia. For the latest AFGE news and information, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.