It’s one of those things that’s just makes you wanna go…hmmmmmmm. You see, at a time when most of our every day, average working Americans are struggling just to make ends meet because of the rapidly rising cost of food and energy and an exploding government debt that is threatening to undermine what little economic recovery, if any, there has been, literally thousands of federal employees are raking in bigger salaries than are the governors of the states where they live. You doubt me? Well don’t, because that’s according to a new report just released. It is a verifiable fact that federal public employees now make twice the salaries of their private sector counterparts with annual earnings that top $123,000. That’s at a time when the median US household income, by comparison, is roughly $52,000 annually, before taxes. Does this make any sense to anyone? That is, of course, to anyone other than one of those thousands of federal employees making these exorbitant salaries. This is so absolutely insane and is something that simply cannot be allowed to go on. Things must be brought back into some sort of balance. And soon!
This report comes from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) and shows that more than 77,000 federal workers, in jobs ranging from medicine and air traffic control to public relations, computer programming, and even interior decorating, earned more in 2009 than did their state's chief executive. “Across America, governors are being asked to do more with less, often at lower pay than federal employees in their states. The pay gap between governors and federal employees should prompt Congress to take a closer look at federal salaries,” said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who was the one who requested the CRS report. “With our debt and deficits spiraling out of control, now is the time to ask agencies — not just governors — to do more with less.” Ah, commonsense, something that is so rare these days when it comes to the running of the federal government. I’m afraid that when it comes to the possessing of any level of commonsense, Sen. Coburn, and many of his fellow Republicans, remain in the minority. Unfortunately, with the passing of each day it seems that a growing number of crazies are able to gain more control over the operation of the asylum. Many of which who reside on the opposite end of the political spectrum than does our Sen. Coburn.
Coburn said he asked for the comparison to governors’ salaries, because he felt state chief executive pay is indicative of top-tier salaries, both public and private, in each state. Coburn has been adamant that the government needs to pay federal workers less while the nation attempts to solve its out of control deficit problem. The research analyzed the salaries of more than 2.1 million federal employees. The CRS report did not list specific federal salaries nor did it connect states with specific public-sector job titles. The CRS report shows Colorado atop its list with 10,875 federal workers earning more than Gov. Bill Ritter's salary of $90,000. Maryland was second with 7,283 civil servants topping Gov. Martin O’Malley's $150,000 annual haul. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Vermont had just 100 federal employees beating out former Gov. Jim Douglas, who pocketed $142,548 that year. We are talking about some very large sums of money here that people are being paid for doing what, exactly.
Of the 77,057 highly paid federal workers singled out in this report, 18,351 were doctors. Air traffic controllers accounted for the second-highest amount, or 5,170 of the total. Those two professions accounted for 31 percent of government workers who are presently outgrossing their governors. But it’s not all doctors and air-safety personnel. According to a Washington Times analysis, nationwide there were 122 park rangers, 271 environmental protection specialists, 14 chaplains and one prison guard who earned more than their governors. A prison guard? Give me a break! There were also 21 archaeologists, three sociologists, 48 social workers, four food service workers and five civil rights analysts who earned more than their governors. Is this nutty of what? “Federal employees deserve to be paid adequately, and no one would argue against paying skilled engineers or top-notch doctors and nurses to care for wounded soldiers and veterans,” Coburn spokeswoman Becky Bernhardt told reporters. “It seems to defy explanation, however, why recreation planners, an interior designer, and many other public servants are receiving higher salaries than state governors when our nation is $14 trillion in debt and many taxpayers are struggling to pay their mortgage and make ends meet.” How can you not agree with that assessment?
The report comes at a time when the Barry “Almighty” administration is bucking federal budget concerns and overseeing what can only be described as being a historic increase in the number of federal employees. The federal workforce has added nearly 200,000 jobs since Barry assumed office in 2009 and topped over 2 million last year for the first time since “BJ” Clinton declared “the era of big government is over” and began paring back the government rolls in the 1990s. And the CRS report also comes at a time of growing disparity between public and private sector workers in this era of recession. The gap between the lucrative pay scales of federal employees and the not so lucrative pay of our average private worker has widened considerably over the last decade to the point that public workers now routinely make more than twice the salary earned in the private sector, according to the Cato Institute. In 2009, federal employees earned an annual salary of $123,049 compared to just $61,051 in the private sector. In 2000, fed workers made $76,187 annually compared to $46,782 for the average private worker. A recent Newsweek survey found that seven of the 10 richest counties in America, including the top three, are in the Washington area with its large number of federal government workers. According to the Washington Post, only three counties in the United States had a household income of more than $100,000 in 2010; all three are Washington suburbs. Now there’s a shocker!
Work-a-day Americans, however, do now “appear” to have had enough. At least according to a recent U.S. News and World Report poll, that showed that more than 31 percent of respondents demanded a cut to generous federal worker pay and benefits. Republicans last month proposed requiring federal workers to contribute more toward their extremely generous retirement plan. The GOP proposal would save more than $120 billion over the next decade and effectively deliver a 5 percent pay cut to government employees. The Barry “Almighty” administration has since endorsed the idea, calling the federal system “out of line” with the private sector. Out of line? That’s putting it mildly. Other solutions are in the works as well. Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., in May introduced legislation that would prohibit agencies from hiring new employees until the federal deficit eases. Meanwhile Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., reintroduced the Federal Workforce Reduction Act, which would reduce the federal workforce by attrition. Excellent suggestions all, we just to make them a reality.
It should go without saying, of course, that officials from the National Treasury Employees Union, the union which represents over 150,000 federal employees, were quick to criticize Coburn's conclusions drawn from the new CRS report. “The largest percentage of federal employees cited in this CRS report is made up of professionals such as doctors, attorneys and scientists. Their compensation pales by comparison to those in similar positions in the private sector,” union President Colleen M. Kelley told the Houston Chronicle. “Virtually all of them could earn substantially more by leaving government service. That they do not is to the enormous benefit of the public and the country.” Ms. Kelley’s drivel is nothing more than standard operating procedures for unions and nothing else. It’s their standard method of choice used in their repeated attempts to justify the outlandish pay and benefits enjoyed by unionized public employees at the expense of those private sector employees who are expected to shell out more and more of their hard earned money in the form of escalating taxes in order to cover the costs of federal pay and benefits. Workers, who at the same time, I might add, are very busy trying to cover the cost of their own health insurance and retirement plans.
Barry just loves to spend all kinds of time talking about “fairness” and a system that is more equitable. But you have to wonder, just how fair is this cockamamie set up? A set up where you have one segment of our population busting their butts to bring home and average of $52,000 a year, minus taxes of course, footing the bill for federal employees who make twice as much and have their benefits paid for. And yet, Barry seems to have no problem whatsoever with this arrangement as it presently exists. In fact I think it safe to say that he’s busy trying to make it even worse! And the rationale for doing so should be very obvious. That rationale being, of course, because it benefits him and his Democrat Party buddies. After all, who else are all of these federal employees going to vote for? They certainly aren’t going to vote for those who want to cut their pay and benefits. Right? So in the end it’s your average Joe who is providing Barry with the necessary funds that then allows him to buy the votes of all of these very generously paid federal employees. “Hope and Change,” don’t ya just love it?
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