Federal Employees

Many federal workers in and around Washington make their home in the Baltimore area, so when two of them get together at a party, they immediately begin swapping commuting strategies. "Invariably, the first question that I get when I say I commute to D.C. is 'Oh, do you take the train?'" said Elaine Papp, a Federal Hill resident who works for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in southeast Washington. "When I say, 'No,' then they say, 'How do you get there?'" How to get "there" is a question thousands of Marylanders must figure out. About 101,370 federal employees in Maryland commute to Washington, according to 2010 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

It's been a difficult year politically for federal workers. It's about to get worse. As Congress scrambles for solutions to looming automatic spending cuts and expiring tax breaks, lawmakers and budget experts say the federal workforce is sure to be targeted to pay for year-end legislation needed to keep the nation from careening off the so-called fiscal cliff. The scope of the proposals will hinge on the results of the election in November, but few doubt that the cuts will come in some form.

John Gage, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, has announced he will retire in August after leading the politically powerful union for the past nine years. The Baltimore resident, who is 66, has battled with Congress and the White House over recent cuts to the federal workforce. A Pittsburgh native, Gage was a minor-league catcher in the Orioles organization in the late 1960s. He worked for the Social Security Administration in the 1970s as a disability claims examiner.

Time and time again I hear Republicans chatter about how horrible President Obama has been for the economy. One of their funniest gaffes is that Obama is a big spending, government-loving liberal. To put that in perspective: The average annual growth in federal spending under President Obama has been 1.4 percent. Compare that to George W. Bush's 7.7 percent, Ronald Reagan's 6.8 percent,George H.W. Bush's 5.4 percent and Nixon's 10.4 percent. (These figures come from the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of Management and Budget and Marketwatch.)

Gov. Martin O'Malleyand Maryland Democrats developed a creative yet questionable fix for their budget woes in a special session of the General Assembly last month. Governor O'Malley performed budgetary acrobatics by leveraging Maryland's geography and the federal tax code's idiosyncrasies. Thanks to Congress, big spenders in Annapolis are now dining at federal taxpayers' expense. When Governor O'Malley first came into office in 2007, he needed a way to pay for all of his campaign promises, so Annapolis used a "millionaire's surtax" to raise the money.

In response to those who complain that President George W. Bushought to be tried for war crimes, I guess that means it is OK to bomb civilians using drones - or are you also ready to put President Barack Obama on trial? As for Sen. Barbara Mikulski who has been in the U.S. Senate for what seems like forever, why did she wait until now to try and pass a bill requiring equal pay for women knowing she did not have the votes? ("Equal pay, equal work," June 7). Why didn't she bring it up when Democrats held a majority in Congress a few years back, and why are federal employees excluded from the law?

John Gage, who has served as president of the American Federation of Government Employees for nearly a decade, said Tuesday he intends to retire later this summer to spend more time with his family. "I have a growing family that I've kind of neglected," Gage, who is 66 and lives in Baltimore, said in a brief interview with The Sun . "I never have been able to really put in perspective the people who love me and the union activities. " As head of the nation's largest federal employee union, Gage has battled with lawmakers and the White House at a particularly difficult time for federal employees.

Your phrase "irate tea party protesters regard federal civilian employees as enemies of the people" is just unbelievable ("Help for the jobless?" Feb. 20). Is this a phrase of the day from Media Matters or Moveon.org? It is so spurious that I find it hard to believe a sane person would put it in anything sent out for a million people to read. I stopped watching MSNBC due to their continuous attacks on people rather than ideas, and you are more and more doing the same thing. The U.S. cannot continuously borrow 40 cents on every dollar it spends and last very much longer (see Greece)

Eight of Maryland's 10 members of Congress voted against a bi-partisan plan Friday to extend a national payroll tax holiday - including two who were instrumental in crafting the deal - citing concern over how the measure would affect federal employees. The only Maryland Democrat to support the measure, which ultimately passed both chambers, was Baltimore County Rep.C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger. The deal was also supported by Republican Rep.Roscoe G. Bartlett, who said he almost changed his vote.

All but one Maryland Democrat in Congress bucked party leaders Friday to vote against extending a nationwide payroll tax break through the end of the year, most of them because of a requirement that newly hired federal workers contribute more to their retirement. The proposal, which will maintain a 2 percentage point payroll tax reduction for millions of Americans that was set to expire this month, failed even to capture the support of the two Maryland Democrats who were instrumental in its crafting: Sen. Ben Cardin and Rep. Chris Van Hollen.