Boehner on Federal Pay Freeze

Release:

House Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement today regarding President Obama’s announcement of a federal pay freeze:

“I welcome President Obama’s announcement, and hope he will build on it by embracing much-needed steps to reduce both the size and the cost of government, including the net federal hiring freeze Republicans propose in our Pledge to America. Without a hiring freeze, a pay freeze won’t do much to rein in a federal bureaucracy that added hundreds of thousands of employees to its payroll over the last two years while the private sector shed millions of jobs.
“Today’s action is a clear indication that the Pledge to America, which lays out concrete steps to cut spending and reduce the size of government, is the right plan to address the people’s priorities. Republicans and Democrats don’t have to wait until January to cut spending and stop all the tax hikes. We can – and should – start right now.”
NOTE: Boehner addressed the need for a federal pay freeze at a press conference earlier this month: “I believe strongly – and if you look at the Pledge to America – that there ought to be a freeze on the hiring of new federal employees, and frankly, we ought to freeze the pay.” In May, House Democrats rejected a YouCut proposal to freeze federal civilian pay.

I'd like to see a pay CUT on the table.  Freezes can be thawed...CUTS leave scars!