Posted on 12/12/2007 11:51:49 AM PST by Graybeard58
As he did in 2001, President Bush is giving most federal workers Christmas Eve off with pay so they may have a four-day holiday weekend. It was wrong then, and it's wrong now. Yes, Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon and Carter did the same thing when Christmas Eve fell on Monday, but they did it because federal workers at the time were less handsomely paid. That age, however, is a distant memory.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says the average federal salary is 48 percent higher than the private-sector average. When the value of fringe benefits (pension, health and life insurance, etc.) are added, the disparity grows to 100 percent, says the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Federal workers already get more paid time off than most in the private sector, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Each year, they get 10 paid holidays, plus 13 sick days they may accumulate to infinity. Their vacation-day allotment rises from 13 in their first three years to 20 through Year 15 and to 26 thereafter.
Government workers have much greater job security that folks in the private sector. Their jobs are recession-proof, and their employer has no competition and will never go bankrupt. When the government runs low on cash, it just prints or borrows more money or finds ways to "enhance revenues."
So despite a budget deficit of more than $100 billion, a national debt of $10 trillion and unfunded entitlement liabilities of $90 trillion, the president spends gobs of other people's money to give his people a day off with pay and makes private employers who can't afford to follow suit look like Scrooges.
If federal employees want Christmas Eve to be a paid holiday, let them negotiate it into their contracts. Otherwise, make them use a vacation day, just like America's working stiffs.
I allow my employees’s 35 of them, Christmas eve off no matter where it falls. It is part of their paid holidays. 9 of them each year. New years eve, however, is a work day if it falls during the work week.
I’m also really offended that the President pardons that turkey for Thanksgiving. That’s a bird that could be used to feed our troops or be sold to help pay off the debt. Instead, the wasteful executive lets it go free just to spread some stupid goodwill and honor a holiday giving thanks to God. That pisses me off.
As for me, my staff gets a half day on Christmas Eve, as has been the case since we opened the doors in 1997.
‘Good for you but you’re not having me pay for it either.’
Thats true, but it doesn’t change the fact I like it the Federal government is acknowledging THE Christian Holiday.
And leftwingers aren’t saying a single word about it.
Nor is the ACLU asking for a court injunction.
Nor is Pelosi or Reid disputing it.
Go down to the supermarket and yell at the baggers and cashiers if it makes you feel any better
All true, but we have no self-esteem.
“Christmas” is not and never has been a Christian holiday. It’s an attempt by the church to co-opt myriad pagan celebrations and put a “Christian” spin on it.
All the trappings of the season come from pagan religions. What on earth does giving crap to one another have to do with the birth of Jesus the Christ child? The Bible does not tell us to celebrate His birth. It’s a man-made construct to pacify the masses.
Remember His death and resurrection. Obey Him as you go about your life and tell people that He has come that sinful men might have life eternal.
I do.
I like my mail man Mike though. Give him a Christmas present every year.
Glad you aren’t around my staff, they hate party poopers....(chuckle)
Are you two guys related?
“Bah humbug. The president does something nice to his employees for Christmas and someone has to take offense.”
I totally agree. Something tells me that if Bush said nope I will not give you the day off, there would be the same sniping. Cut me a break. Its Christmas.
We have alot of more important things to snipe about.
If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas” on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!
Tell it! I'm about to suffer the yearly onslaught of 4 children & their spouses, 12 grand children and two of their spouses and 2 great grand children, their assorted friends and pets.
Don't get me wrong, I love them all............one or two at a time.
I don't even get a vote on this travesty if I want to continue living with my wife, with whom I have been married all my life.
You must be very important.
DAVID CROCKET TO BONO: “IT’S NOT YOURS TO GIVE”
By Mary Starrett
August 12, 2007
NewsWithViews.com
http://www.newswithviews.com/Mary/starrett73.htm
The Republican National Committee has signed on to endorse a proposal by Irish rocker Bono to commit American taxpayers to spending $30 million to “eliminate global poverty.”
As if any amount of tax payer funds would actually accomplish that goal. What usually happens is the money extracted from us to fund these wealth transfers first fills the pockets of foreign fat cat dictators while barely a trickle ends up lining empty food bowls.
History has shown us socialism does not work. Countries laboring under the delusion that Utopia can be achieved by making sure all have ‘what they need’ necessitates that relatively few must labor to provide for all. Bono’s ill-advised scheme is socialism. The Republican Party has agreed to consign Americans to the same fate as other socialist countries with its recent endorsement of Bono’s global goody bag.
Bono, the mouthpiece for environmentalism, global wealth transfer and socialist policy in general owns several opulent mansions throughout the world and travels by jet. The four engine behemoth he flies (while admonishing you to drive a hybrid) gets about 3 miles per gallon. (So much for the imperiled ozone, the Kyoto treaty and greenhouse gasses.)
What we now see is the GOP unabashedly aligning itself with a man who travels the world advocating taxpayers (especially the porcine capitalists in America) fund every bloated ostensibly humanitarian project the UN can cook up. Ironically, Bono has moved his lucrative music enterprise out of his native Ireland and to the Netherlands to offset a huge tax bill with nary a wimper about this Bono factoid in our liberal press.
With planes, mansions, off shore tax shelters and a world-wide bully pulpit to tell Americans how they should fund millions for tin pot dictators in far flung lands- Bono’s got it all figured out about how much and to whom you must give to charity.
And the Republicans have signed you up for this lunacy. The Republicans- the party of limited government whose control of the White House and/or both houses of Congress for a quarter century has resulted in quadrupled federal spending.
Would that time travel were possible; I’d introduce Davy Crockett to this bonehead Bono. Davy Crockett was a U.S. Congressman from Tennessee- not just some coon-skin capped fictional character. Based on the following story I suspect the fabled frontiersman Davy Crockett would have a few well-chosen- albeit sharp- words for Mr. Bono.
In the early 1800’s Congress was considering a bill to give tax dollars to the widow of a well-loved military officer. Davy Crockett rose to address Congress after many speeches advocating the allocation. He said: “Mr. Speaker…. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity, but as members of Congress we have no right to so appropriate a dollar of the public money. We have no…. authority to appropriate it as a charity. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week’s pay, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks.”
There was silence on the floor of the House as Crockett took his seat. When the bill was put to a vote, instead of passing unanimously as had been expected, it received only a few votes. The next day a friend asked Crockett why he spoken against a bill for such a worthy cause. In reply, Crockett related the following story: Just a few years before, he had voted to spend $20,000.00 of public money to help the victims of a fire in Georgetown. When the legislative session was over, Crockett made a trip back home to campaign for his re-election. He encountered one of his constituents. The man told Crockett, “I voted for you the last time. I shall not vote for you again.” Crockett, feeling he had served his constituents well, was stunned. He inquired as to what he had done wrong. The man replied, “You gave a vote last winter which shows that either you have not capacity to understand the Constitution, or that you are wanting in the honesty and firmness to be guided by it.
The Constitution, to be worth anything, must be held sacred, and rigidly observed in all its provisions.... Last winter you voted for bill to appropriate $20,000.00 to some who suffered because of a fire. Well, Colonel, where do you find in the Constitution any authority to give away public money in charity? No Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity. Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose. The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. Everything beyond this is… a violation of the Constitution. You have violated the Constitution in what I consider to be a vital point When Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the People.”
Time travel not-withstanding Congressman Davy Crockett’s words hold as true today whether we’re talking to Bono, the RNC, the Democrats or well-meaning Americans. When taxed to fund charity we should respond:
“It’s not yours to give.”
For a downloadable copy of the Davy Crockett “Not Yours To Give” story click here.
© 2007 Mary Starrett - All Rights Reserved
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Mary Starrett was the Constitution Party candidate for Oregon governor in November, 2006, a TV news anchor and talk show host for 25 years and a radio talk show host for 5 years.
Executive Director, Oregonians for Life, Board of Directors, Christian Family Adoptions.
She is currently the Communications Director for the Constitution Party. The Constitution Party is the fastest-growing minor political party (www.ballot-access.org) and is made up of Americans who believe a return to constitutional government is imperative.
E-Mail: mstarrett@constitutionparty.com
http://www.newswithviews.com/Mary/starrett73.htm
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That being said..........
Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas to all of you overpaid and underworked federal employees. LOL
We were going to, but our days off follow the govts, so we get to “work at home” on the 24th istead of taking a vacation day.
All the trappings of the season come from pagan religions. What on earth does giving crap to one another have to do with the birth of Jesus the Christ child? The Bible does not tell us to celebrate His birth. It’s a man-made construct to pacify the masses.
LOL!
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