WaPo: Another two Pinocchios for Obama’s Janitorgeddon

Hotair ^ | 03/02/2013 | Ed Morrissey

[SeekAndFind]

What a shock! You mean the same President who sent his Education Secretary out to make baseless claims about the sequester putting teachers out of work told a whopper about pay cuts for janitors and security guards? So says Glenn Kessler at the Washington Post, and, er … the Architect of the Capitol that employs them:

“Starting tomorrow everybody here, all the folks who are cleaning the floors at the Capitol. Now that Congress has left, somebody’s going to be vacuuming and cleaning those floors and throwing out the garbage. They’re going to have less pay. The janitors, the security guards, they just got a pay cut, and they’ve got to figure out how to manage that. That’s real.” …

We have embedded an image of the document below. Stephen T. Ayers, the architect of the Capitol, listed a number of steps being taken to reduce expenses, including limiting new hiring and postponing repairs. This line jumped out at us: “We do not anticipate furloughs for AOC employees as a result of Sequestration.”

Here is the memo for all to see:

Dear AOC Employees

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE EMBEDDED IMAGE OF THE MEMO

The White House then tried to argue that the sequester would cut overtime, but Kessler isn’t buying that explanation:

A White House official notes that the memo does refer to “further reducing overtime.” Technically, that could mean some janitors might see less pay, but it’s unclear how many actually earn overtime. Under the reasonable person test, a possible reduction in overtime appears a bit different than “just got a pay cut.”

[Update: Another White House official says that the janitors, both part time and full time, are contracted out by the Architect of the Capitol. “Since the AOC said that the contracts would be reduced or eliminated, it’s hard to convincingly make the case those contract workers won’t be affected,” he said. In other words, White House officials assume there is an impact but they are not exactly sure themselves.

In other words for those other words, no one actually bothered to check this claim before Obama made it at the press conference. Why not? Apparently, they don’t care about getting caught fibbing and demagoguing, and the rest of the media (Kessler aside) doesn’t seem to be checking up on their claims, especially those that fit their class-warfare paradigm.

Kessler gave Obama two Pinocchios for this hyperbolic allegation, but Obama’s entire PR effort — including today’s “What more do you want me to do?” performance — deserves a federal budgetful of Pinocchios.

[SeekAndFind]

CONTENTS OF THE MEMO:

Dear AOC Employees,

Sequestration takes effect today and the AOC’s current funding for Fiscal Year 2013 will bereduced by approximately 5.3%. While this reduction in funding will be difficult for us to absorb,the good news is the AOC has taken proactive steps to slow spending and plan for the cuts sincelast October. As I mentioned in my note to you last week, our planning and preparations will allowus to implement changes more slowly, reducing the impact of Sequestration on our customersand AOC employees.

At this time, we will begin implementing the AOC’s Sequestration plan. The top priorities in theplan are maintaining critical support for Congress and the Supreme Court and supporting AOCemployees. We will focus our efforts first on the following:

•

Reducing or eliminating certain contracts

•

Postponing some repair and alteration projects

•

Trimming maintenance and operations programs

•

Reducing bench stock and supply levels

•

Delaying replacement of old equipment

•

Further reducing overtime, training, and awards

•

Limiting new hiringWe do not anticipate furloughs for AOC employees as a result of Sequestration. However, we willnot know the AOC’s final budget for this year until Congress passes legislation to replace theexisting continuing resolution, which expires March 27. If that legislation further reduces our budget, we may have to consider additional spending reductions, which could include furloughs.We will utilize furloughs, if necessary, only as a way to avoid more harmful actions such as aReduction in Force.

In the coming weeks, you will hear more news as we begin to implement different actions in our Sequestration plan. Additionally, I will provide another update once we learn more about our finalfunding level for the rest of Fiscal Year 2013. To stay informed, I encourage you to subscribetoday to receive AOC news and announcements to your personal email address or phone -

subscribe today

.It is important that we continue to work together as one team to overcome the challenges createdby these funding cuts and achieve our critical mission. I truly appreciate how hard you work everyday to care for our customers.

Thank you,

Stephen T. Ayers, FAIA, LEED AP

Architect of the Capitol

[Dalberg-Acton]

throwing out the garbage

Does that explain why no congressmen are there today?

[DugwayDuke]

From the memo: “While this reduction in funding will be difficult for us to absorb,the good news is the AOC has taken proactive steps to slow spending and plan for the cuts sincelast October.”

So the AOC is smarter than the DoD. AOC planned for the sequester and won’t have to furlough but DoD refused to plan for the sequester and now must furlough. Could we get the AOC to manage the defense department?

[GOPJ]

In other words for those other words, no one actually bothered to check this claim before Obama made it at the press conference. Why not? Apparently, they don’t care about getting caught fibbing and demagoguing, and the rest of the media (Kessler aside) doesn’t seem to be checking up on their claims, especially those that fit their class-warfare paradigm.

Is this implying the Washington Post has decided to become a real newspaper again? They're cutting back on Obama butt kissers?

[bigbob]

Maybe we should start by having Congressmen empty their own trash and clean their own toilets. The message being “if you made the mess, you clean it up”.

There isn’t one thing on this list that every business in the US hasn’t had to do, and most families, too.

[sportscaster]

The Post evidently in a brief lovers spat with Obama over the Woodward intimidation.So gay.

[sheana]

At a previous job I was in outside sales and went into the office about twice a week, once for a meeting and once just to clean up my accounts paperwork.
The company decided they needed to cut costs so I went in for my weekly meeting and the branch manager passed out an assignment list for ‘bathroom duty’, he was letting the janitor go.

Much agreeing was heard by the 11 other sales reps until I stood up and said.....Take me off your list, I refuse to clean bathrooms. I was hired as a sales rep and really have nothing much to do with this office. If you want to let the janitor go then you or the office manager can clean the bathrooms in your spare time. It won’t be me.

He didn’t let the janitor go.

On the other hand, it would please me to no end to know that the Congress people or their staffs were cleaning their own bathrooms. ;)

[Safetgiver]

it would please me to no end to know that the Congress people or their staffs were cleaning their own bathrooms. ;)....Do you have a particular affinity to filthy bathrooms? You KNOW how that situation would end up.

[Aria]

I work at a Fortune 500 company with a huge amount of cash. When I first went there janitors emptied our waste baskets if we sat them right outside our cubes. That ended a few years ago and I really don’t mind.

If only the federal government would have the same attitude.

I’d refuse to clean the bathroom however..

[SoFloFreeper]

A lawless occupant of the Oval Office is a lying sack of crap?

And the clown says “this is what the American people voted for”? I don’t think so.