The GOP's First Target Should Be Government Worker Salary and Benefits

The American Thinker ^ | November 11, 2010 | Ed Lasky

[Scanian]

America has woken up to the fact that much of our fiscal crisis at the state and federal levels has been caused by the rich salary, benefit, and pension packages of government workers. Chris Christie, Republican Governor of New Jersey, has become a YouTube sensation by clearly articulating the problem. So does this USA Today article:

"The number of federal workers earning $150,000 or more a year has soared tenfold in the past five years and doubled since President Obama took office, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

The fast-growing pay of federal employees has captured the attention of fiscally conservative Republicans who won control of the U.S. House of Representatives in last week's elections. Already, some lawmakers are planning to use the lame-duck session that starts Monday to challenge the president's plan to give a 1.4% across-the-board pay raise to 2.1 million federal workers.

Federal workers earning $150,000 or more make up 3.9% of the workforce, up from 0.4% in 2005. Since 2000, federal pay and benefits have increased 3% annually above inflation compared with 0.8% for private workers"

Compounding the fiscal time bomb (a nuclear one at that) is the fact that the government work force has also grown tremendously over the years.

There has been a long-running vicious cycle playing out over the years. Politicians (mostly, but not exclusively, Democrats) have been signing generous agreements with government workers and their unions. In return, the government workers provide a solid voting block, and the public employee unions can use their enlarged dues to funnel money to Democratic campaigns. There was a reason -- beyond their leftist ideological beliefs and animus towards businesses -- that both Barack and Michelle Obama counseled people to go to work for the government. Those government workers become a special interest group

[rbg81]

Ok. “In the Black” usually refers to finances. When it comes ot illegals, being “in the black” population wise means “in the red” financially.

[gusopol3]

And no relatives on the payroll

[Scanian]

Hey, now....JJ told Ed Schultz that repeal constitutes genocide and he won’t stand for it! His mobs will hit the streets! /s

[kearnyirish2]

No doubt; it wasn’t positive news, unless you were a landlord with vacant apartments...

[rbg81]

When I lived in Northern VA, more than one house in our neighorhood was rented to illegals. The landlords probably got their rent, but with 3X the number of typical inhabitants, any profit made probably went to fixing the extra wear and tear.

[kearnyirish2]

There is no “fixing” when your tenants are illegals; they have no recourse. Here in northern NJ a few years ago, they had a basement fire in a normal house in a wealthy area that killed illegals from a few different countries because it had been made into “rooms for rent” (not even apartments); the fire was by the one entrance (completely violating fire code) so nobody could get out.

When I was discussing this with an unemployed friend of mine, he said (without batting an eyelid), “that’s more American jobs saved”. As much as that horrified me, he was absolutely right; these people paid no income tax, no property tax, no social security tax...but they were still people. That is why people rise up and execute their (fill in the name: King, Tsar, whatever)...

[rbg81]

That is why people rise up and execute their (fill in the name: King, Tsar, whatever)...

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Not sure what your saying here. Are the illegals going to rise up or the unemployed citizens? If the former, its really their own fault. If you’re here illegally, pay smugglers to get you in, take day jobs, and all you can afford is an overcrowded sh!thole, then you’re taking your chances from the gitgo. But, in the end, its their decision to take the risk. Many of our ancestors did the same thing—coming to America was always a big role of the dice.

[kearnyirish2]

The illegals won’t do anything (why would they? our poor people live better than the middle classes where they come from); the American people have been screwed by their “leaders” (in both parties), and are watching their standard of living disappear before their very eyes. America has lost its exceptionalism because leaders who loved money over country traded it (and many Americans’ futures) away.

Citizens don’t have to be unemployed to be outraged; many are working jobs that won’t provide the standard of living they had even five years ago. What should an eighteen year old approaching high school graduation consider as a career nowadays?