Cox made the comments at the AFGE 2015 Legislative Conference. AFGE
Video: Fox Show Rips Feds, AFGE Chief on Valentine's Day
Hosts David Asman and Steve Forbes think feds make too much money.
Fox News host David Asman brought together a panel on Valentine's Day to discuss the role of the federal government and government workers. It was hardly a love letter to feds, though. The panelists on the financial show Forbes on Fox apparently don't hold civil servants in high regard.
Asman began the segment with the debatable assertion "Even though they make a lot more than folks in the private sector . . ." before quoting J. David Cox, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, from Eric Katz' recent story on GovExec.com:
If I meet one more politician who tells me we need to tighten our belts, I’m going to take my belt off and I’m going to whoop his ass.
The quote, thankfully, was properly attributed to GovExec.com.
Asman then spoke to former presidential candidate, magazine publisher and noted small-government enthusiast Steve Forbes about the difference in compensation rates for public and private sector employees. Not surprising, nobody mentioned federal pay was frozen for three consecutive years before feds received a whopping 1 percent raise last year.
Forbes cited Defense Department changes in personnel ratios, saying the federal government thinks "the bureaucratic army can keep us safe." Asman then turned to other panelists and they all suggested ways to cut government spending -- and government jobs.
Forbes' John Tamny claimed that he is for "abolishing programs and departments altogether because spending cuts, they just grow back. You’ve got to get rid of them.”
“I’ve been engaging in some fantasy thinking,” Forbes.com's investment strategies editor Bill Baldwin said, going even deeper into cutting government. “We eliminate the Department of Education, we eliminate the Department of Energy, we repeal Dodd-Frank so we’re no longer parasitized by 100,000 regulators and compliance officers. But that’s pure fantasy.”
Forbes finally ended the segment suggesting "getting rid of the income tax code," which he claimed leads to "more government programs and higher taxes."