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Obama To Freeze Government Salaries At All Time High
In 10 minutes the teleprompter in chief will announce that he is about to freeze government salaries for two years. Of course, government workers thank him, as this means federal salaries which have exploded in the past 5 years will be stuck at all time highs for at least two years, even as nominal salaries for everyone else (except FIRE workers of course) continue to decline. As we suggested a few days ago, in order to promote some vaguely credible idea of austerity, instead of freezing salaries, Obama needs to be cutting. Why? One look at the chart below explains it all.
And here is what we said a few days back on the topic of record government worker salaries:
For all those wondering how to cut down on government expenditures, here's a thought: cut the skyrocketing salaries! A study by USA Today,
using US Office of Personnel Management data, confirms what has been
widely known: that the biggest beneficiaries of government largesse over
the past 5 years as a worker cohort, are none other than Federal
workers themselves. The numbers are stunning: those earning over
$150,000 in the past five years have grown from 7,420 to 82,034, a
1,006% increase. More shockingly, those earning over $180,000 has surged
from just 805 in 2005, to 16,912 in 2010: a 2,001% increase. And
it is on the background of this that Congress is planning on giving 2.1
million federal workers another 1.4% across the board pay raise!
Additionally, it appears that the bulk of the gains have taken place
since Obama took office. Can someone please stop the lunacy: this
country is beyond bankrupt and it turns out that in addition to Wall
Street (which everyone knows does nothing but transfer wealth from the
middle class to a few choice CEOs and groupthinking Bloomberg terminal
operators), the biggest thief is the very government itself, which has
perfected the art of giving with one hand, and taking with 10, almost as
well as those enclosed in glass corner offices on Park, Lexington and
Broad (and now West).
The stunning comparison of what Federal workers were making in 2005 and 2010, spread by income bucket:
More from USA Today:
Federal salaries have grown robustly in recent years, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Office of Personnel Management data. Key findings:
- Government-wide raises. Top-paid
staff have increased in every department and agency. The Defense
Department had nine civilians earning $170,000 or more in 2005, 214 when
Obama took office and 994 in June.- Long-time workers thrive.
The biggest pay hikes have gone to employees who have been with the
government for 15 to 24 years. Since 2005, average salaries for this
group climbed 25% compared with a 9% inflation rate.- Physicians rewarded. Medical doctors at veterans hospitals, prisons and elsewhere earn an average of $179,500, up from $111,000 in 2005.
Federal workers earning $150,000 or more make up 3.9% of the workforce, up from 0.4% in 2005.
Since
2000, federal pay and benefits have increased 3% annually above
inflation compared with 0.8% for private workers, according to the
Bureau of Economic Analysis. Members of Congress earn $174,000, up from
$141,300 in 2000, an increase below the rate of inflation.Jessica
Klement, government affairs director at the Federal Managers
Association, says the government's official pay analysis shows that
federal workers earn less than private workers for comparable jobs.
Still, she says, managers are willing to give up next year's raise: "If
it will help the country bounce back, they're willing to make the
sacrifice."
And just to make sure you get really
angry, here is how one Federal Union views the fact that government
workers as a whole are now the second best paid group after Wall Street:
National
Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley counters that the
proposed raise "is a modest amount and should be implemented" to help
make salaries more comparable with those in the private sector.
Once
again, we get confirmation that Americans always get nothing more or
less than the thieves in control they deserve, and elect.
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I get the point. I worked in government. But many of your statements are not completely true whether you want to believe them or not.
It is also worthy to point out which gov't level you are speaking of. City, county, and state employees do not operate with the same structure as the Feds. Throwing a blanket statement out there and claiming it is true for all is too simplistic and inaccurate. However, on the basic premise, I agree.
Under the GS pay system step increases begin at one year and increase to three years over time.
step 1 to step 2
52 weeks of creditable service at step 1
step 2 to step 3
52 weeks of creditable service at step 2
step 3 to step 4
52 weeks of creditable service in step 3
step 4 to step 5
104 weeks of creditable service in step 4
step 5 to step 6
104 weeks of creditable service in step 5
step 6 to step 7
104 weeks of creditable service in step 6
step 7 to step 8
156 weeks of creditable service in step 7
step 8 to step 9
156 weeks of creditable service in step 8
step 9 to step 10
156 weeks of creditable service in step 9
I was a federal employee until 2000, and promotions are (were?) automatic at the lower GS levels, until GS-11. After that point, there were quotas on how many people could move up in level each year. And there were (in my organization anyway) multi-year promotion freezes. And at the lower levels, you had to serve a certain amount of time at the lower level before moving up.
Just as an aside, the worst abuses in terms of promotions and salaries in my organization occurred in the HR department. It was common for HR people to work together to promote themselves to the GS-14 or even GS-15 level. So, you would have people who were essentially secretaries earning as much as world-renowned scientists.
I have heard the same. Good to know the system can't be abused. Thanks for the post
Thanks for the post. This is an echo of what I have heard for a long time.
Another abuse: Putting guns in the hands of bureaucrats. By that I mean, inspectors and crime labbers are given guns, not to protect themselves, but to give them a raise in pay and bonuses becauses they are law enforcement personnel. Been done in more than one federal agency.
On
could move up in level each year.
You are talking about levels which require a promotion, eg GS-10 to G-11. I am referring in large part to the the 10 steps within each GS level. Those are virtually automatic.
It is true that promotions are fairly easy, and if there is a freeze in promotions, they are all lined up at the gate when the freeze ends.
Having been a gov't worker for 25 years, I am going to be straight out honest here. In the course of 25 years my salary increased 600%. In 1982, I made 1000 bucks a mo. I retired making 7000 a mo.
My entry level in 1982 was pathetic. It was a substandard wage by nearly all measures. Towards the end, I was at the top of my food chain. At those lofty level I was at the mercy of these miscreants called politicians.
Having been a gov't employee, I should tell you that I learned to hate gov't employees. They are lazy, inefficient, and whiny bastards as a general rule. Like firefighters. The ridiculous salaries of Obama's admin...are completely off the fucking rails.
Good post, Lunatic. I always noted the worst people wanted to work for government. Thanks for some honesty, too. It's refreshing to see someone who can fairly evaluate their own. I started work in 1982 and made about the exact same. However, I was in the Army and we got other bennies which made it more. I remember back then it was the traditional government trade off of low pay but job security and decent benefits. I also remember that in peacetime the Army is a government job and after dealing with Civil Servants decided there was no way I could work for the government.
LF,
This is why I get so bent out of shape with tirades directed at government employees. I have a BS in software engineering and took a decent-sized pay cut to work for the government a few year ago. At the time, there were no full-time jobs for programmers in my state outside of a few advertised in big city papers (I was working on contract). There are actually firms out there who specialize in tuning requirements so no American can possibly fulfill them, thus cheating their way to a exemption to the H1B quotas. Anyway, like I said, I took a pay cut and I just hit $40K two years ago right before my pay was frozen.
I don't know where some people on the internet work, but I do know that it's not reality. When I worked in the private sector, we had clueless bureaucrats whose purpose was to sabotage projects within the company. Government does not have a monopoly on them by any means. Ever been to HR, marketing, accounting, legal, or customer service? I can't believe everyone in the private sector is an independent ditch digger.
I also take exception to being lumped in as an unproductive idiot just because I work for a government agency. I have an math/engineering degree and I refuse to be talked down to by finanical industry theives or their minions. I know those whiz kids think they're the smartest people in the room, counting all of those beans, but the problem-solving that I do every day would kill them.
The cracks about ineffiency get old too, given that IT's purpose in any organization is to increase efficiency. Every ounce of efficiency I squeeze from the system gets swallowed up or ignored. The lack of visible progress is bad enough without a bunch of know-nothing suits talking out of their asses.
So, I'm sitting here, in the 3rd year of a pay freeze. Welfare is getting more raises, but nobody complains about them because it's racist or some other excuse. People are howling for my pension, that I've paid into, to be stolen in a perverse bid to restore "the rule of law." All of the private companies I have to deal with are laying people off and raising prices but there's supposedly no inflation.
You know, it makes it damned difficult some days to drag my ass in to work and work hard all day while the all of the economy's saints are busy astroturfing on blogs to pin all the blame for everything ever on me alone, in between stuffing a free lunch, courtesy of my taxes and labor, down their greasy, pampered, entitled, arrogant snouts.
US$40K, are you a Tandem programmer working Maine ;) ? What level of .gov do you work (Fed, State, City, County, etc.)? The point about efficiencies being ignored or absorbed is a reason I left early in .gov work. Went back to consulting and it is the best decision I've ever made.
Obama has turned out to be great at making great pronouncements about how he is shutting the barn door now... long after every horse has long ago left the building.
Still the pay rate is only a small part of the problem, up, down, or frozen we are still screwed. The problem is the shear NUMBER of federal bureaucrats. Take a hatchet, not a scapel, to the federal employement rolls.
I have an idea to solve this problem:
If you are supported by a government salary either directly or indirectly, you are by definition not a taxpayer, so you don't get to vote anymore....
That should fix things.
what is zero voters for 100 bazillions, Alex?
I would add to that if you get a government welfare check or subsidy, e.g. welfare, section 8 housing recipients and farmers. No one getting other people's money gets to vote.
LOL how's the mortgage interest deduction treating you? No votes for homeowners! And certainly not for small business owners...being subsidized and all....maybe only foreign-based corporations and government entities should vote for the US puppet leadership. Let's get it over with. We're just eating our own tail here.
Those who get tax breaks are in a different situation. A tax break lets you keep more of your own money. It is money that you earned. It is not someone else's. Now you can argue about what's fair or unfair in the tax code and that's a legit argument. However, it is a liberal schill to say that a tax break is actually the same as getting someone else's money through the government.
For the record I am against the home mortgage deduction as it distorts the market and makes homes more expensive. However, a huge part of our economy rests on that and you cannot remove it without severe consequences, at least not quickly. I am also against property taxes as it allows government seizure of property without compensation. In essence, if you own a property you will always be paying for it, first, to the note holder and second you will have to buy your house from the government. When I lived in NJ, the property tax rates were as high as 5% annually which meant in 20 years you had paid for your house a second time to the government. You probably still had to pay your 30 year note, too. Insanity.
+++ on both points.
i'd be fine without the mortgage deduction. housing-prices/interest-rates would adjust accordingly.
re: property-taxes - bingo. the state effectively owns your land. eventually, an effort (on your part) to completely opt-out would result in armed enforcers removing you forcibly from 'your' property. simple litmus test.
i'm a pay-go guy - gas (hay) taxes for roads. price per unit electric/water, tuition for schools. meters for parking, entry fees for maintained parks/pools. fees for access to public records (mostly online now) esp. physical duplicates.
and finally, traditional taxes (flat, not progressive) for municipal services (e.g. tax-maps, titles, etc.), bound to your ability to vote on those services, *not* bound to your property.
it used to be complex and expensive to work at this granularity, but when safeway can print me a custom coupon, based on my buying patterns, my county/state can certainly bill me according to my use. period.
our homes are not really ours. sort of a "here's what you have to pay for the *privilege* of living amonst us" fee. and what an f---in' privilege it is...
and most folks don't have a problem with that.
I just want people to be clear. You said subsidy. Seems clearer now.
Maybe the internet has developed to the point where we could all just make a couple of pie charts to show the revenue and expenditures and be done with all these generalities.
I don't think there is such a big political gulf as is conveniently postulated by so many. But then, we might all have a platform or even a party.....not allowed!
That's the only way democracy will survive. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
this is probably the best single idea I've heard in years. I would say that it should be written into the Constitution as an amendment, but nobody seems to pay any attention to the Constitution any more.
Just like AIG and the big banks, they must pay up to retain "top" talent.
More divide and conquer. Fodder for the have-nots to hate.
Stay focused - it's on the financial elites that the red dots should alight.
Best post on this whole thread.
Let's cut the military-welfare handouts that are nothing more than a jobs program and then we can go about cutting the gvt down to size.
The low hanging fraud and waste is in almost every state yet every state fights for their share of the mil-welfare and of course with the bloat of that along with the Homoland Security and the like you have an explosion of
those who "protect".
You look at the ramp in salary and look at the spending/hiring by agency and you will see you begged to be "protected" and thus you are. Chumps.
deleted
Maybe Obama wants to invite me to a Washington State Visit Parade.
...Potus and I can share an Open Landau.
People of the U.S. love the Austrian Royal Family.
...Can't say the same of the citizens of Sarajevo.
hrh ADF
Fed employees aren't the only ones. My friend, who works for a county gov, said they just got pay freezes too (rank and file-clerks, sewer workers, etc)on top of mandatory furlough days. But that did not include their "step raises" they get every year, just for showing up warm and breathing.
However the "managers" (administrators, policymakers, politicians), the ones who do nothing but go to meetings all day and receive salaries way above the rank and file, got "merit" raises of 15% across the board.
One other not so funny thing, the county commissioned an audit 5 months ago to determine if manager salaries are in line with the private sector. They keep "delaying" the release of the audit and right before Thanksgiving, put discussion of it on the table until after the new year. In the past, the "managers" always used this audit to justify big increases in pay. I have a feeling the audit did not show that this time and that is why they will not release and discuss the results.
Does ZH or anybody else have a comparisn chart of Private worker salaries and Gov't worker salaries from 5 years ago. I really like to see who is accurate, ZH or the Union. Lets be fair here or does Doom and gloom ONLY get subsrcibers.
Oh my, austerity comes to Amerika.
No, "austerity" would equal salary cuts for these dramatically overpaid leeches.
"salary freeze" means, "I got your back".
In celebration of the man of change, making some changes, how about doing a new dance, called
cross it up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTi2wjeyyBc
they could out source most of these fed. jobs to U.S. based companys. that would create untold jobs in the private sector and still pay them 50K a year which is half what they pay now. But of course obama might lose alot of votes by doing whats best for the country.
WTF is with people not understanding how to write English? "Companys" and I saw "overpayed" above. WTF??!
<>
The biggest problem is that the private sector has to make a profit to survive and the government doesn't. Thats why in my opinion this is the best reason to make government smaller.
Freeze them? Obama's making sure we don't cut those outrageous salaries in the near future.
Imagine the economic impact of a policy that said public sector salaries and benefits would be reduced one percent a year UNTIL private sector pay and employment recovered.
Not only would this policy (finally) align the interests of public sector employees with taxpayers and private sector employees but it would also create a "natural" test of the theory that public sector employees are "underpaid". By simultaneously monitoring the voluntary movement of public workers BACK TO the private sector (by field and pay grade) a realistic determination of relative pay could be very accurately discovered both generally and with respect to specific occupation.
No one could say that an annual 1% pay reduction is burdensome to public employees given the damage private sector workers have sustained recently. Isn't it also possible that business and investment attitudes towards future growth prospects would turn positively, relatively quickly, given this new alignment and promise of fiscal sobriety?
It could be that the economy would get back on track with little actual public sector pay decreases with sufficiently robust gains in "animal spirits". A small change, yes. But one that actually provides leadership towards a healthy outcome for every employee, public and private sector.
Well, having been a fan of Mish Shedlock's for a long time, I have developed a healthy skepticism on the "attack public workers" theme. It's fun for page hits, but problematic when one actually thinks about it. It's openly deflationary, and has little to no bearing on a good discussion of public budgets. I for one think we can't afford a lot of things that people like government to provide--1980 budget levels anyone???--but prefer people to put their own favorites on the chopping block first. It makes more sense to lop off whole chunks of agencies, or entire agencies, than to scapegoat public salaries.
I am also surprised that Tyler would post a junk chart like the one above. What is the point of showing the same data at the $160,000, $170,000, $180,000, and $190,000 level? That's just stupid, cherry picking taken to an extreme. If it were a stock chart it would be junked to hell and back.
Most of the growth in really high paid jobs are in security/military/intel. That is, Republican job growth. It's not honest data crunching to pile in public union stuff with these non-union, 'jackbooted manager' jobs.
Don't be an ass. Republicans may have created the jobs, but it was Obama that exploded their salaries.
This is classic leftist political strategy-- bribe the bureaucracy to ensure that it is squarely in your pocket, and will "do the right thing" when the time comes.
Uh, get a clue? Wherever you go...the GOP ain't cuttin' nobody that is on their side. Note even the half-assed chart shows the Republican salary-splodin' action.
Geez. Don't be an asses' ass. That is classic idiocratic political braindeath, what you just said. Haven't you learned anything from your oil industry sponsorship?
Typical SnarkFest. All the loonies are on ZH today.
One thing many here are looking past:
Gov't, in an effort to reduce headcount on paper has contracted everything out. There are no longer federally employed janitors, secretaries, etc. Those that are left are some sort of middle-manager and are paid as such based on whatever comparisons they make to industry which should be reflected in averages.
The upper level like GS-15 and SES (http://www.fedjobs.com/pay/pay.html) get paid little for the amount of money they control. Managing a $15m dollar contract is roughly the same pay as managing a $2b one. But in the real world, screwing up is a cause to get replaced. Gov't doesn't fire anyone unless they are proven to egregiously break the law intentionally.
Rumsfeld started an experimental performance based pay system in the DoD to cut out some dead wood but Obama reversed that. Big surprise right?
So who the fuck are all these new GS-15 and SES positions for? Likely some sort of new managment for programs support the wars or any number of new diversity initiatives.
My guess is a lot of these people are related to the "Czar" positions. I myself wondered because government employees go through a long step-promotion system. While it provides regular nearly guaranteed raises at the lower and middle levels it cannot suddenly explode with top paid people. This has to be related to whole new departments and programs like healthcare reform, etc. I would like to see who they are and what they do.
Castro just fired 1,000,000 government employees.
England is firing 200,000 government employees.
The USA is worried about a pay freeze to reduce 1.4% of pay.
American citizens are fools and idiots to be played like this. Like children watching a magician palm quarters to make them disappear.
Worse than that-the magician is in the imbecile ward, playing to the vegetables who don't even realize they've shit their pants.
The wizard is handing the vegtables piles of shit and calling it fertilizer.
More planes flying into buildings?!?
Why bother? They've already won.
I just wonder how much of this is completely redundant and uneccessary DHS and TSA. What about mercenaries in our wars? They get paid hundreds of thousands as well. How much of this is really just bullshit like that? Stuff that shouldn't be paid for at all in the gov't. Especially blackwater/xe wages, and of course our statistical gods just might happen to be co-mingling a 5th year Xe Arab man and woman killer specialist, with your local DES person making 50 times less.
Remember, America is no homeland. We all immigrated here, unless you're Native American. Thus NO possiblity of America being a 'homeland'.
So if we are spending all this money on federal workers? Where's the work being done?
It's not about more or less gov't, it's about imperialist gov't or american spirit gov't. Really that's it.
We are past the point of no return folks....just a matter of time...12-21-12 anyone?
We are past the point of no return folks....just a matter of time...12-21-12 anyone?
two good blog posts on US Fed gov workforce:
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2010/09/the_everexpandi.html
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/09/government-employment-since-1976.html
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/09/update-on-government-employment-graphs.html
At the heart of it, it's not the percentage of the US (workforce - U6) in the US that has employment through the government (local and Federal).
it is the percentage of (employed - U3) workforce in the United States that work as government employees is now at a multigenerational high.
Check this graph:
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2010/09/anti_leviathn1.gif
The employed private sector is being crushed by the taxation level to pay for public sector workers who at Federal pay scales make better compensation at every skill level and career track (outside of FIRE).
The United Kingdom has a similar problem, the situation there is much more severe, areas of the UK have over 65% of the workforce either working as government employees or on the dole. With the sweeping reforms PM Cameron and Nick Clegg put forth, some of those areas of "Soviet Britain" are looking at catastrophic reductions in Federal infusions of makework and dole monies into the local economies.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article5581225.ece
From The Sunday Times January 25, 2009 ‘Soviet’ Britain swells amid the recession Abul TaherPARTS of the United Kingdom have become so heavily dependent on government spending that the private sector is generating less than a third of the regional economy, a new analysis has found.
The study of “Soviet Britain” has found the government’s share of output and expenditure has now surged to more than 60% in some areas of England and over 70% elsewhere.
Keep in mind that soon over 50% of Americans will pay no income taxes. and
Of the remaining 49% of the population that pay taxes, nearly 20% work for the government(if you include government education employees as gov employees).
http://calculatedriskimages.blogspot.com/2010/09/government-employment.html
Right, I remember reading some of this decent report on the underlying problem:
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/10/the-2010-index-of-dependence-on-government
The 2010 Index of Dependence on GovernmentPublished on October 14, 2010 by William Beach and Patrick TyrrellCENTER FOR DATA ANALYSIS REPORT #10-08
Abstract: The number of Americans who pay taxes continues to shrink—and the United States is close to the point at which half of the population will not pay taxes for government benefits they receive. In 2009, 64.3 million Americans depended on the government (read: their fellow citizens) for their daily housing, food, and health care. Starting in 2015, the Social Security program will not receive enough taxes to pay all the promised benefits—which will be hard for all job-holders, but devastating for roughly half the American workforce that has no other retirement program. Add in last year’s preposterously named American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, spiraling academic grants, flat-out farm socialism, the swelling ranks of Americans who believe themselves entitled to “free” government benefits—and now the government takeover of the nation’s health care system—and the very nature of this country’s republican form of government is called into question. Like they have been doing since 2002, Heritage Foundation policy experts lay out the increasingly gloomy facts. Can Americans pull back from the brink of complete dependence on government
The freeze is expected to save more than $5 billion in savings over two years, $28 billion over five years and more than $60 billion over 10 years. LOL BaaWaHaHaha
This freeze accumulates to about 3 months worth interest payments on the additional spending they will increase over the next 2 years. So in the end the big balck hole will just get deeper and deeper. Remember living on a credit card and paying the minimum payment is a bitch, especially when the interest rate goes up and you keep adding to the balance!
Now Obama just has to freeze prices, except for uniformed military.
REMEMBER: If you want to catch Wall Street Foxes,
You must PAY WELL then hire enough smart Foxcatchers at SEC etc.
If you want military veterans to get quality medcal care,
you must PAY WELL to keep good doctors.
NOTE: ONLY 3.9% OVER $150K...how many in Financial Industry?
seems apropos here:
"A NATION CAN SURVIVE IT’S FOOLS AND EVEN THE AMBITIOUS.BUT IT CANNOT SURVIVE TREASON FROM WITH IN……AN ENEMY AT THE GATES IS LESS FORMIDABLE,FOR HE IS KNOWN AND CARRIES HIS BANNERS OPENLY AGAINST THE CITY.BUT THE TRAITOR MOVES AMONG THOSE WITHIN THE GATES FREELY,HIS SLY WHISPERS RUSTLING FREELY THROUGH ALL ALLEYS;HEARD IN THE VERY HALLS OF GOVERNMENT ITSELF….FOR THE TRAITOR APPEARS AS NO TRAITOR;HE SPEAKS IN THE ACCENTS FAMILIAR TO HIS VICTIM,AND WEARS THEIR FACE AND THEIR GARMENTS AND HE APPEALS TO THE BASENESS THAT LIES DEEP WITHIN THE HEARTS OF ALL MEN.
HE ROTS THE SOUL OF A NATION;HE WORKS SECRETLY AND UNKNOWN AT NIGHT TO UNDERMINE THE PILLARS OF A CITY;HE INFECTS THE BODY POLITIC,SO IT CAN NO LONGER RESIST.A MURDERER IS LESS TO BE FEARED….THE TRAITOR IS A PLAGUE”…. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
(yelling off)
AGREED.
this is a system designed by bankers/ruling elite to serve the bankers/ruling elite. only asset-backed money and 100% reserve requirements can stop the madness. Of course, I believe nothing short of public executions are in order for Highly Treasonous crimes against the U.S. Constitution and American people.
know this scoundrel by his name; understand who he is.:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rockefeller
“For the first time in its history, Western Civilization is in danger of being destroyed internally by a corrupt, criminal ruling cabal which is centered around the Rockefeller interests, which include elements from the Morgan, Brown, Rothschild, Du Pont, Harriman, Kuhn-Loeb, and other groupings as well. This junta took control of the political, financial, and cultural life of America in the first two decades of the twentieth century.”
- Carroll Quigley
“The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining supercapitalism and communism under the same tent, all under their control … Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent.”
- Congressman Larry P. McDonald, 1976, killed in the Korean Airlines 747 (Flight KAL007) th at was shot down by the Soviets in 1983
http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/how-do-we-arrive-eve-our-collapse
Hasn't been mentioned before, but big reasons for the increase in federal employees making large money are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The DOD and State Department, including USAID, have hired lots of people as "3161s" (non-civil service vested employees) and "Personal Services Contractors" (PSCs) at GS-13, -14 or 15 or FS-04 to 01 or similar rates to staff the embassies, aid missions and provincial reconstruction teams in combat zones.
Not to mention the tenured civil service and foreign service employees who are assigned to places like the embassies in Baghdad and Kabul.
The thing is that an unaccompanied tour in the combat zone pays 35% danger pay and 35% separation allowances in addition to base salary and allowances. A 70% premium.
Thus, a GS-13 or FS-02 can get more than $200,000 per year.
This hiring really got going with "The Surge" and the change in tactics in Iraq and the subsequent "Surge" in Afghanistan. The Provincial Reconstruction Teams date from 2006 in Iraq, and the new huge Embassy in Baghdad was opened in 2008.
These people are technical experts and professionals working in places where they get shot at, mortared and rocketed and risk roadside bombs to do their jobs, so it's hard to argue they are not earning it. The only solution is to stop those reconstruction missions.
If this is true, then why did the explosive growth in the number of highly paid federal employees occur AFTER Obama assumed office? The "surge" happened years before that.
is this related to actual new hiring, position upgrades, salary increases, or all-of-the-above?
anyway you look at it feels like a huge bump in middle-class welfare.
on the backs of... nm, it's been said better a few times up there ^ ...
My point is, it did start under Bush. You will notice the graph compares 2005 to 2010. Bush was in office until January 2009, remember?
It's a badly kept secret that Bill Ayers wrote "Dreams From My Father" on Obama's behalf.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/evidence_mounts_ayers_cowrote.html
great post. thanks.
Change we can believe in!
Thank god Obama didn't freeze federal hiring, just salaries. I still got a chance to get in on a $170,000.00+ salary at the expense of all the tax serfs. Hooray for the Obamanation. And some of you idiots wanted to leave the country.
I compared job losses across private sector to public - federal to public - state to public - municipal
Only 1 of the 4 showed job growth the past 3 years - you can guess which!
http://www.fundmymutualfund.com/2010/11/on-safety-of-government-work.html
I wonder what would happen if you lay off all of Congress, and re distribute all that wealth among all 25 million americans not working. There is some progressive thinking, for all of you.
RC
LMAO... [not sure why tho, 'cause this actually isn't very funny]
What kind of Kool-Aid are they drinking at the National Treasury Employees Union?!
If Colleen Kelley wants things to be comparable to the private sector then retro-actively roll their salaries back to Dec '08 levels, then freeze them.
Then, while they're reeling from that, slash their benefits package and lay off 20 or 25% of their members.
These paper-pushing bureaucrats riding the goverment's golden gravy-train are so freakin' clueless it's sickening.
"Once again, we get confirmation that Americans always get nothing more or less than the thieves in control they deserve, and elect.", good quote I think this says it all.