Posted on 12/28/2017 6:52:44 AM PST by harpu
Paying federal workforce costs taxpayers $1.1M per minute, according to a pro-transparency group, Open The Books
December 27, 2017
by Mark Tapscott
James P. Cochrane earns $250,335 annually as chief marketing and sales officer for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), making him the highest paid public relations employee of the federal government. The USPS lost $5.1 billion in 2016.
Right behind Cochrane is Stephen Katsanos, who pulls down $229,333 as a public affairs official for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). And the third highest-paid federal public relations employee is Titus Simmons, also of the FDIC, at $215,248, according to “Mapping The Swamp,” a new report compiled by Open The Books, an independent nonprofit that tracks federal spending using the government’s own numbers.
These three individuals are among the 3,618 federal workers who get an average of $101,827 annually to put the best possible “spin” on government every day. That comes to $368.4 million a year. A big reason for such a huge sum is that 1,807 of the federal government’s public relations workers are paid $100,000 or more, up from 1,501 in 2012.
In fairness to Cochrane, the USPS is a semigovernment corporation and had to contribute $5.8 billion to pre-fund postal retiree health care costs. Without the pre-funding, the USPS would have shown a $200 million profit, according to official postal data. The pre-funding is the focus of an intense and long-running debate between USPS officials and Congress.
Even so, the 3,618 government public relations employees (aka; spinmeisters) are a tiny segment of the 1.97 million career federal civil servants the report tracks.
The review doesn’t include more than 700,000 civil servants employed by the Department of Defense, any of the uniformed members of the U.S. military, or those working in the U.S. intelligence community.
Federal workers are paid $1.1 million a minute, $66 million every hour, and $524 million each day.
“Mapping The Swamp” may be the most comprehensive and creative report ever compiled on the true size and cost of the federal government. These 10 findings highlight the hundreds of previously undisclosed facts contained in the report:
1.) Federal workers are paid $1.1 million a minute, $66 million every hour, and $524 million each day.
2.) The number of federal workers paid more than $200,000 annually increased 165 percent between 2010 and 2016, those making $150,000 or more by 60 percent, and those getting $100,000 or more by 37 percent.
3.) More than 400,000, or roughly one of every five, federal workers makes a six-figure income. Nearly 30,000 of them are paid more than all 50 state governors.
4.) On average, federal workers get 10 paid holidays, 13 paid sick days and 20 paid vacation days each year. If all of them took full advantage of their paid leave, it would cost taxpayers more than $22 billion.
5.) Hundreds of federal workers get cash bonuses every year. The highest such bonus last year went to a human resources manager who received $141,525!
6.) More than 35,000 lawyers are employed by the federal government but only a third of them work for the Department of Justice. Collectively, the government lawyers were paid $4.8 billion in 2016.
7.) There are 3,498 police officers working for the Department of Veterans Affairs at a cost of $172 million. But officials there can’t provide data for the number or kinds of crimes committed on VA property.
8.) Pay averaged $100,000 or more at 78 of the 122 independent agencies and departments examined for the swamp report.
9.) Between them, the USPS and the VA employ more than half of the total federal workforce covered by the report.
10.) There are an additional two million federal workers at the Department of Defense and the U.S. military.
“We found small and large agencies across the federal government gaming the system for personal gain — and it’s expensive for the taxpayer,” Open The Books CEO and founder Adam Andrzejewski said in a media release.
“Congress should hold hearings to bring transparency to all the information we’re still missing, including performance bonuses and pension payouts,” he also said. “It’s time to squeeze out waste from compensation and stop abusive payroll practices.”
How much is Rosenweasel paying Weasel Mueller per hour?
<><> how much our leisure loving, do-nothing Congress is costing us.
<><> how much the Kenyan half-caste is costing us in retrement-----with a stratospheric "federal inheritance."
<><> how much Obama took from slush funds to fund his do-good scams.....
<><> Obama gave Michele $100 million dollars "to teach Muslim girls in Morocco" from the State Dept's Millenium Fund----to be held and doled out by the Obama Foundation.
<><> how much ex-president Clinton---a billionaire---is costing us.
ping
That has got to be a misprint.
How much of that has been churning back through the Clinton Crime Syndicate?
Here’s to 2018 being the Year of Sealed Indictments and the ribbon cutting of the GITMO Expansion Project.
And The People, as well as 50 States\territories, refuse to reign Fedzilla back to its LEGAL and Constitutional A1S8 bounds.
IOW, there is not a PLETHORA of ‘issue(s)\problem(s)’ that CANNOT be solved by the same.
Time was, the FCC was run by engineers who understood communications technology. Now its run by lawyers who understand meddling.
It’s all for the children so it’s okay
You should be outraged at some of these figures, but this is the tip of the iceberg. All those Mutlimillion dolar houses in Patomac Md and McClean VA and “gentlemen’s farms” out in the VA and MD countryside are not being purchased on federal salaries. Those are being paid for by the so-called private sector - the crony capitalist sector that has always been their but got a shot of steroids after 9/11 with the “war on terror” including the contractors supporting DHS and DOD. And in case anyone thinks that these are efficient industrial organizations supplying the arsenal of democracy, remember, we don’t make anything much within 100 miles of DC except for powerpoint slides. It’s all beltway banditry and think-tankery.
Like my previous note, this has nothing to do with expertise and excellence in overseeing the common good, but dolling out special favors to cronies, taking legal bribes and providing cover so that no one goes to jail for marauding the public fisc and public trust.
GITMO theory really gaining a foothold the last few days.
My late father, who was a retired Army CWO2 and served between 1939 and 1963 and only had an 8th grade education, would always say that the problem with this country, from the time he retired until his death, was all of the professional students and “ass-perts” (experts). Also that WWII was won by people like him who barely had an 8th grade education.
At the 2009 Wall Street Journal’s Economics Conference Special Assistant to the Secretary of Energy, Matt Rogers, stated, “I’m Matt Rogers. I am the Special Assistant to the Secretary of Energy and I have $134 billion that I have to disperse between now and the end of December.” Paul Hollander, a “venture capitalist,” responded to this in an email, “Matt Rogers is about to get treated like a hooker dropped into a prison exercise yard.” When he shared this with Rogers, he was relieved the find that Rogers and his friends laughed at the suggestion.
“Congress should hold hearings.” Congress funds this nonsense and most members are beneficiaries of this system.
From the article:
"A big reason for such a huge sum is that 1,807 of the federal government’s public relations workers are paid $100,000 or more, up from 1,501 in 2012."
An increase to 1,807 workers from 1,501. An increase of 306 workers.
No, it's just that you didn't quote the entire sentence. Here it is:
A big reason for such a huge sum is that 1,807 of the federal government’s public relations workers are paid $100,000 or more, up from 1,501 in 2012.
There were 1,501 PR workers paid $11k or more in 2012 and now there are 1,807 PR workers paid $100k or more. That's an increase in the number of PR workers in fedgov who are paid $100k or more.
It really got going under Bush Cheney, 9/11, DHS and Iraq. The cronyism to put together the deal to invade Iraq, giving the socialists everything they wanted, the globalists everything they wanted and the crony-capitalists everything they wanted really got the swamp pumped up on steroids.
Thanks. 8>) Must be my tired eyes.
I can identify with that. No worries.
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