The continuing resolution that should pass Congress by the end of the day includes the pay freeze for federal employees. Aside from how this will harm the ability to hire and retain talented workers acting in the public interest, this is just the beginning of a broader assault on public workers being seen all over the country.

Three-quarters of those who were surveyed in an October Washington Post poll said they believe federal workers get better pay and benefits than people doing similar jobs outside the government, and 52 percent said government employees are overpaid.

When the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll this month sampled public opinion on the major proposals that were put forward by the president’s deficit and debt reduction commission, the most popular by far – and the only one deemed “totally acceptable” by a majority of respondents – was freezing the salaries of federal employees and members of Congress for three years.

Officials of public employee unions say they have felt political wrath before, but that this time, it feels different.

“The extent and the depth of it is new. This is a concerted, deep attack on public employees and public workers,” said Gerald W. McEntee, president of the 1.6-million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “The problem in the economy has not been created by public workers. It was created by Wall Street, and this political sleight of hand will do nothing to solve the problem.”

The public opinion polls have almost certainly been molded by a sustained attack, not just from politicians but from the media, which uncritically accepts distortions about public workers. 60 Minutes really let down the public with their recent report on this:

On Sunday night, the CBS News show 60 Minutes joined this campaign. The piece begins by telling viewers that:

“in the two years, since the “great recession” wrecked their economies and shriveled their income, the states have collectively spent nearly a half a trillion dollars more than they collected in taxes.”

That’s not what the data show. If we look to the Commerce Department’s National Income and Product Accounts we find that in total state and local government spent $45 billion more than they took in (line 27). CBS does not give a source for the “nearly half a trillion” number [...]

The piece also told viewers at the onset:

“There is also a trillion dollar hole iln their public pension funds.”

In fact, this shortfall is overwhelmingly attributable to the plunge in the stock market that followed in the wake of the collapse of the housing bubble. According to Federal Reserve Board data (Table L.119) if pension fund assets had increased at just a 5 percent nominal rate since the 4th quarter of 2007, they would have $935 billion more money at the end of the third quarter than is currently reported.

These lies give the impression of a crisis, and then that anxiety is channeled into fearmongering over public employee salaries, which are actually slightly less than in the private sector. While actual solutions for state and federal budget woes are ignored, the notion that we can cut employees out on the way to balancing the budget is forwarded. And this is ridiculous.

I think the term “public employees,” meanwhile, is far too anodyne. We’re talking about firefighters and police and EMT personnel. We’re talking about the people who take care of you when your sick, the people who teach your children, the people who make sure your Social Security check gets to you on time. We’re talking about your neighbors, your friends, the people you love. Hating “government workers” is easy; hating the person who gives your child a chance to succeed, or your grandmother a chance to live is quite a bit harder.

And the larger point here is that the politicians demonizing “government workers” wouldn’t care at all if they were unionized and able to collectively bargain for better pay and benefits.