The bureaucracy that rules over us keeps getting richer and richer.
As Americans struggle to make ends meet, federal government employees are taking home a “minimum wage” of $100,000 and getting two months paid vacation after a mere three years of employment, according to government watchdog group Open the Books.
President Trump is theoretically in charge of the federal government, but that doesn’t mean he controls the fat cat federal bureaucrats in the Democrat-dominated civil service, many of whom within the Beltway work every day to undermine his policies. He even ordered a pay raise for federal employees in the new year, although the increase is smaller than what had been scheduled had he not acted.
With a workforce of 2 million people, the U.S. government is one of the most generous employers around, shelling out more than $1 million a minute in pay and benefits to its employees, for a total north of $136 billion a year in fiscal 2016, according to the report titled “Mapping the Swamp, A Study of the Administrative State.” The study excludes 742,000 civilian employees at the Department of Defense as well as the 1.3 million men and women on active duty.
Out of control federal pay is driven by the unrestrained greed of government workers’ unions that keeps upward pressure on wages, making feds increasingly removed from the everyday American experience. As the nation plunges deeper and deeper in debt, governments at all levels find themselves unable to meet their obligations, yet public employees continue to press their demands for unreasonable compensation and benefits. All across the country, rapacious government unions are eating taxpayers alive, while working feverishly to shape the political battlefield to their own advantage—under cover of a crusade for “social justice.” Instead of serving as a check on government power, government employee unions function as an unelected fourth branch of government, augmenting its power at taxpayer expense.
This makes draining the Washington swamp especially difficult, or as President Ronald Reagan remarked in 1983, "It's hard, when you're up to your armpits in alligators, to remember you came here to drain the swamp."
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Dammit! Just don't give it to 'em. I don't think they'd quit if they didn't get it.
ReplyDeleteYou folks continue to amaze me at the level of stupidity showcased here and other forums. No wonder you alternate between anger and fear; you believe every narrative that is spoon fed to you. You do realize OPM maintains a full set of data and robust objective analysis that blows a hole in the claim of "100k minimum wage". Even the way the author describes the claim should show that they are simply shoveling garbage clickbait with the headline. Let me clue some of you in:
ReplyDeleteBeyond political appointees, the only folks making over 100k are those with advanced degrees. Many of those folks with advanced degrees, including scientists and engineers, make significantly less working for the feds than they would in private industry. The area where one could make a real claim of fed employees being overpaid is for the low skill positions. These are the folks keeping the food coming and the floors clean at fed facilities. But keep in mind 1) since the 80's, the gov has switched largely to a private contractor model for these duties, and 2) with the amount of access these folks have to military personnel and sensitive facilities, it's probably worth paying a little extra.
As usual another moron that believes any and all numbers listed on a government statistical website. You sound about as dumb as Jake day. You have jobs as irrelevant as a mailman making over 100,000 in some cities. They've gotten rid of as many employees as possible leaving their workforces bare and forcing people to work ridiculous amounts of overtime. You have letter carriers right I'm Salisbury that are making over 70,000 year just to deliver junk mail
DeleteI need to get back into Government work!! Wait, does that mean that Soldiers, Airmen, Sailor's and Marines get the same rate?
ReplyDelete840 - not "all" making 100K have advanced degrees or a general degree. Some elder folks (eyeing retirement) in specialty position could be at the GS13 level or above based on general experience (per OPM) as well as many years of occupational training.
ReplyDeleteThere are a good handful like this, but as with every generation - once they retire, that ability to get to the higher levels on the General Schedule OR Senior Executive Service will require a degree.
There are less than 3 million fed gov't employees in America - compared to an approx. 300 million in population. That's roughly 1% of the pop is a fed worker. This doesn't include the defense contract industry or other contractors with other federal agencies. The contracting community is BIG MONEY!
My main problem with the union is that the Union Reps are paid by the Federal Government and not by dues collected by the unions.
ReplyDelete