Obama Says Federal Workers Don't Deserve To Be Treated As a "Punching Bag"

Wrote "None of this is fair to you," in letter to workers

President Obama told federal employees Tuesday they don't deserve to be treated as a "punching bag" in the fight over government spending. 

In a letter sent to the federal workforce, the president noted that federal workers have had to grapple with three years of pay freezes, broad sequester cuts and now a government shutdown.

"None of this is fair to you," he wrote. "And should it continue, it will make it more difficult to keep attracting the kind of driven, patriotic, idealistic Americans to public service that our citizens deserve and that our system of self-government demands.