From the Cato Institute:
“What is going on here? Members of Congress who have large numbers of federal workers in their districts relentlessly push for expanding federal worker compensation. Also, the Bush administration had little interest in fiscal restraint, and it usually got rolled by the federal unions. The result has been an increasingly overpaid elite of government workers, who are insulated from the economic reality of recessions and from the tough competitive climate of the private sector.
It’s time to put a stop to this. Federal wages should be frozen for a period of years, at least until the private-sector economy has recovered and average workers start seeing some wage gains of their own. At the same time, gold-plated federal benefit packages should be scaled back as unaffordable given today’s massive budget deficits. There are many qualitative benefits of government work—such as extremely high job security—so taxpayers should not have to pay for such lavish government pay packages.”
The Miami Herald, under a byline by Tony Pugh at McClatchy News Service, published “Should fed’s pay be cut” today. Alongside the article is a very clear graphic compilation of the data shown in the Cato graph above and other sources.The online articles published by McClatchy and by The Miami Herald do not contain the graph and are, in fact, an obvious attempt to keep from making the truth clear. For instance, that article incorrectly says:
“Average earnings in the private sector, which includes minimum-wage workers, CEOs and everyone in between, increased 31 percent, from $45,772 in 2000 to $59,909 in 2008, federal data show. However, earnings for federal civilian workers rose about 54 percent in that period, from $51,518 to $79,197.”
The actual figures are those shown in the graph above - $59,909 to $119,892. Pugh reported the total of private wages and benefits to only the total of federal wages.
Of course, if I were an Obamanite I would try to cover up these facts. I would need to keep growing government and its workers’ entitlement mentalities. After all, it’s easier to buy votes rather than earn them!
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