Federal Workers Amazingly Overpaid

A new report shows that federal workers are completely overpaid relative to their counterparts in the private sector (this of course will not be news at all to those that have been aware of this growing problem).

"Government workers reportedly are now making twice as much as employees in the private sector.

For the past nine consecutive years, federal employees have received higher increases in salary and benefits on the average compared to nongovernment workers, according to a USA Today analysis.

Chris Edwards, a budget analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, said changes need to be made when other employees have seen their salaries in a holding pattern or slashed.

"Can't we now all agree that federal workers are overpaid and do something about it?" he said.

Civil servants received salaries with benefits of $123,049 in 2009 on average compared to employees at private companies making $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis."

Who can possibly be surprised with this news? The level of graft and corruption within the government is at an all-time high. It's as if everyone and anyone associated with the government is over-reaching in order to grab their own "fair share" before the whole Ponzi scheme comes crashing down. The saying "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" seems appropriate here.

Americans cannot stand by and wait for current members of Congress to wake up and fix this problem for us. They (and the people who voted them into office) are ones who have created this sick environment in the first place.

We must elect politicians who think the current size of government is utterly ridiculous (and are willing to vote to defund most of it) and who are in favor of specific amendments to the US Constitution that will ensure that the federal government can never again revert back to its current size.

Taxpayer Bailout of State Pension Plans?

A recent CNN/Money article suggests that state pension plans will need a bailout from the federal government in the coming years.

"This is a problem of monumental proportion," said Rauh, an assistant professor of finance at the Kellogg School of Management. "Given that we see the same issue in many states, the total size of a federal rescue plan could exceed the seriousness of the recent economic crisis and potentially cost more than $1 trillion total."

Let's see if I have this right. States are either unable or unwilling to raise enough taxes from their own residents to make their pension plans solvent. So, instead, they may want the federal government to tax those same people, and then transfer the money back to the states?

Huh?

Here's a better idea. How about the states that have massive pension shortfalls simply reduce the defined benefits that have been promised to state workers to a degree that the pension plans are, voila, no longer insolvent?

Annual compensation (i.e., salaries and benefits) for workers at the federal and state level are already significantly higher than pay for workers doing similar jobs within the private sector.

Simply put, there is simply no plausible reason that the fatcats working for government should be bailed out at the expense of the rest of us.