Federal workers worry about pensions under Ryan

Rep. Paul Ryan's selection as Mitt Romney's vice presidential candidate has federal worker groups braced for cuts in their retirement benefits.

Unions representing federal employees point to the Wisconsin Republican's authorship of a House-passed budget calling for saving $112 billion by increasing the amount of employee contributions to the federal retirement system to 6.2% from the current 0.8%.

The National Treasury Employees Union said in a statement Tuesday it is “a troubling indication that a Romney presidency would drastically cut federal jobs, benefits and the services federal employees provide to the American people.”

“That would be the equivalent of a 5.4% pay cut,” said a legislative official with the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 625,000 federal workers.

The Ryan budget “is an irresponsible and devastating plan … that would have cut spending dramatically from programs for modest income Americans while providing extremely large tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans,” the official said.

The House-passed budget did not include Mr. Ryan's proposal to create private investment accounts within Social Security.

— Contact Hazel Bradford at hbradford@pionline.com | @Bradford_PI