A former congressman from Oklahoma, Ernest Istook, and I were on the America's Morning News radio show this morning discussing, among other things, the FutureOfCapitalism item about how newly hired federal employees are starting out at higher pay than in the past. Mr. Istook made the point that while President Obama is going around claiming he froze federal pay for two years, that's deceptive, because as the Heritage Foundation has pointed out, "In fact, under the measure the president dubbed a 'freeze,' the Federal Times estimated that 1.1 million federal employees will receive pay bumps totaling more than $2.5 billion in additional salary through the standard 'step increases' federal pay system."
I told Mr. Istook that this kind of blatantly misleading statement by the president is the sort of thing that breeds mistrust in government and cynicism.