“The hard truth is that getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifice, and that sacrifice must be shared by employees of the federal government,” Mr. Obama told reporters. He called federal workers “patriots who love their country” but added, “I’m asking civil servants to do what they’ve always done” for the nation. 专科
The pay freeze amounted to an opening bid as the president and Republican Congressional leaders begin jousting in earnest over tax and spending policy. It also illustrated how Mr. Obama can use his office on occasion to get ahead of newly elected Republicans; they had been talking about making such a move when they assume control of the House and additional Senate seats in January.
But while the move represents a gesture toward public anger over the anemic economic recovery and rising national debt, the $5 billion to be saved over two years will barely dent a deficit that has exceeded $1 trillion for the past two years. And even those savings would be swamped by the multitrillion-dollar costs of the bigger issue dividing Mr. Obama and the Republicans — what parts of the Bush-era tax cuts to extend beyond their Dec. 31 expiration, and for how long.
That issue and others will be on the agenda on Tuesday when Mr. Obama will host the House and Senate leaders of each party at the White House for the first time since the midterm elections.
Tuesday will also be the last day for emergency federal assistance for about two million Americans who have been unemployed for long periods, and on Friday a temporary measure providing money for government operations will run out. The two parties are at odds over both matters, with many Republicans opposed to additional unemployment aid and demanding more cuts from domestic spending for the fiscal year that began in October.
Mr. Obama nonetheless expressed optimism that the meeting would be a productive fresh beginning.
“We can’t afford to fall back onto the same old ideologies or the same stale sound bites,” he said.
As Mr. Obama made his comments at the announcement of the pay freeze, the bipartisan commission he established in February to propose ways to reduce the growth of the national debt entered a final two days of negotiations over combinations of spending cuts and revenue increases. In a sign of the struggle to find a compromise that could attract Democratic and Republicans votes, the commission chairmen — Alan K. Simpson, a former Senate Republican leader, and Erskine B. Bowles, a chief of staff to President Bill Clinton — decided to meet privately with members one at a time on Monday and Tuesday instead of convening all 18 members.
The Republicans on the panel are generally opposed to raising taxes and the Democrats to big changes in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Mr. Bowles and Mr. Simpson revised their draft debt-reduction package over the Thanksgiving holiday break to reflect members’ criticisms. Their goal is to reduce projected deficits by nearly $4 trillion over the coming decade. That is roughly the same amount that would be added to the national debt by extending the Bush-era tax rates — a juxtaposition that underscores the contradictory impulses of elected officials as constituents demand smaller deficits and low taxes.
In advance of Tuesday’s bipartisan White House meeting, Mr. Obama and Democratic Senate leaders conferred by phone to try to coordinate strategy.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi planned to have the House vote on the approach that she, Mr. Obama and the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid, prefer, which would extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for income up to $250,000 a year for couples and $200,000 for individuals. But faced with defections from Democrats in swing districts and states, they are considering fallback plans, including one that would keep the Bush-era rates in place for income up to $1 million.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, a Democratic Senate leader from New York, is the main proponent of that plan, which he is labeling the “millionaires’ tax.” He has picked up adherents among Democrats facing re-election challenges in 2012, including Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri.
The lame-duck session of Congress could end up passing a temporary extension that kicks the matter, like other issues, into the next Congress, which convenes in January. On Monday, the House approved a Senate measure that blocks until Jan. 1 a scheduled 23 percent cut in doctors’ reimbursements from Medicare — once again buying time to resolve the costly issue.
The pay freeze Mr. Obama announced wiped out plans for a 1.4 percent across-the-board raise in 2011 for 2.1 million federal civilian employees, including those working at the Defense Department, and it would mean no raise in 2012. The freeze would not affect the nation’s uniformed military personnel, and civilian workers who are promoted would still receive the higher pay that comes with the higher grade or position.
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