What Bush did do, for the past two years, is cut the puny pay raise that is usual for Federal Civilian employees. My ex works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and he and all other feds usually get a 3% increase that helps keep up with inflation. Bush cut it each year to one or two percent, remarking that the funds would go to support the war effort. Remember what he did last year after he lopped the cost of living increase? He gave obscenely large bonuses to his political appointees. Here is a link to that and here is another explaining how federal pay is *supposed* to work (but rarely ever does). Here is a little something about those bonuses.

SRS