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Washington DC's workforce is receiving pay increases from American Tax Payers?
How has that gone under the radar for two presidential administrations to the point where it's unheard of?
Bush and Obama have both been totally reckless in how they've grown the bureaucracy in light of economic troubles.
Its all quite ridiculous.
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Those salary increases for federal employees have really added up, according to a new USA Today analysis, which found that “the number of federal workers earning $150,000 or more a year has soared tenfold in the past five years” — rising from 7,420 in 2005 to 82,034 in 2010 — “and doubled since President Obama took office.” The percentage of the federal workforce earning over $150,000 increased from 0.4 percent to 3.9 percent during that same timeframe. “Since 2000,” says the paper, “federal pay and benefits have increased 3% annually above inflation compared with 0.8% for private workers, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.”
Among the key findings of the analysis is that “top-paid staff have increased in every department and agency.” The report mentions specifically that “the Defense Department had nine civilians earning $170,000 or more in 2005, 214 when Obama took office and 994 in June” — a pattern that hardly comports with neoconservatives’ portrayals of Obama as a defense-budget slasher.
Federal Salaries Rise Fast Under Bush, Even Faster Under Obama (http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/economy/sectors-mainmenu-46/5164-federal-salaries-rise-fast-under-bush-even-faster-under-obama - broken link)
Quote:
Federal workers earning $150,000 or more make up 3.9 percent of the government workforce, up from 0.4 percent in 2005, according to analysis of Office of Personnel Management data by USA Today. The percentages represent a tenfold increase in the past five years and have doubled since President Obama took office.
I don't mind increasing spending to stimulate the economy in bad times, that's to be expected.
But spending hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq and hiring a bunch of $100,000+ federal employees in Washington DC does nothing to help the rest of us.
Which is why Im in favor of drastically slashing the power and influence of the Federal Govt and returning much of their power to individual states.
Annually, Californians send $100 Billion to Sacramento and $300 Billion to Washington DC every year. I think it should be the other way around. Same for NY, TX, FL, IL and so on.
How did you go about creating the list? Generally, college towns tend to have lower unemployment rates and there are some other metros left off of that list that are bigger than many on it.
Which is why Im in favor of drastically slashing the power and influence of the Federal Govt and returning much of their power to individual states.
Annually, Californians send $100 Billion to Sacramento and $300 Billion to Washington DC every year. I think it should be the other way around. Same for NY, TX, FL, IL and so on.
I agree and I think those states would see a big difference in terms of services and what they could do in terms of infrastructure, among other issues/topics.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 15,928,719 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ckhthankgod
How did you go about creating the list? Generally, college towns tend to have lower unemployment rates and there are some other metros left off of that list that are bigger than many on it.
Yeah I didn't want to kill my fingers listing all 375 Metropolitan Areas in this, so I just went with the largest ones.
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Originally Posted by portyhead24
Redundant government maybe?
It's the only thing I don't like about the current political party in the Executive spot of America that it creates a larger Federal Government. The less Government involved in my life the better. I don't want to be the reason that those hacks in Washington run the country anymore than they need to.
There is absolutely no reason for every single Federal Employee to be hiring like 4 assistants and the minimum pay requirements being $100,000 for every Federal Employee including those with low experience or assistant level jobs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 18Montclair
Which is why Im in favor of drastically slashing the power and influence of the Federal Govt and returning much of their power to individual states.
Annually, Californians send $100 Billion to Sacramento and $300 Billion to Washington DC every year. I think it should be the other way around. Same for NY, TX, FL, IL and so on.
Actually the US Economy as a whole is in the gutter and will remain to be until we get an Administration that STOPS useless spending overseas. The Federal Government is swift. It's not just the State Budgets that the country has to worry about that is the least of concerns. LOL actually I find those to be hilarious. The State Budgets are there for the hacks we elected in state offices to figure out for themselves and that's about it.
But the national debt increased from what $3 Trillion to $5 Trillion presently (?). The Federal Government has pinned the National Debt onto the shoulders of the US States.
Keep in mind, most US States already give more to the Government than they get back. But along with that comes the debt the US Government bestows onto every state.
Total State Debt:
New York: $122,527,873,429
Texas: $81,128,512,515
Illinois: $120,743,173,392
Florida: $31,840,545,002
Virginia: $22,294,831,033
Colorado: $25,681,980,195
California: $290,855,041,516
Pennsylvania: $41,844,487,003
Massachusetts: $61,515,259,052
California, New York, Illinois, Texas, & Massachusetts have the largest debts, and all this came from the Federal Government. It's to pay for all the things the last 5 Presidential Administrations have cooked up, the Persian Gulf War, The War in Iraq, the War in Afghanistan, and everything else from the 1980's to now.
So along with large budget deficits + large state debts + high unemployment rates + More tax money to federal government than get back = WTF?!?! And this is why Washington DC ticks so many people off because of the policies and whatever that come out of that corrupted city.
Location: The Greatest city on Earth: City of Atlanta Proper
8,468 posts, read 14,896,767 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 18Montclair
Furthermore, I must point out that the Bay Area is not new to recessions. The area lost 300,000 jobs btwn 2000-2001 due to the dot com bust. The region was saved because even as jobs were lost, the median home price in the Bay Area soared from $300,000 to a mindboggling $850,000 in 2007.
It always surprises me how many people on this site forget about the 2000-2001 recession (maybe because the average of a C-D appears to be prepubescent to 15 years old...but I digress).
One thing that just kind of dawned on me was the fact that right after the Dot Com bust (which affected us pretty bad here too), the thing that did kick start the "recovery" was the housing market boom that turned out to be all smoke and mirrors. So in a way, it could be said that we never actually recovered and have been in free fall ever since the summer of 2000.
As for who the blame goes to, I don't squarely put it with the Bush or Obama administrations. Despite claims to the contrary, our government is set up in such a way as that they can only affect certain things a certain way with most of their power resting in regulation.
I personally put the largest percentage of the blame on corporations themselves. Pumped up by their own hubris and greed, they willingly and intentionally bent the rules (or just plain ignored them) in their never ending pursuit of making a dollar. Now that may sound like a "workers of the world unite speech" or that I am suggesting that corporations should not be free to earn money, but I am not. To understand what I mean, and how the gilded class was/is raping us, read or watch The Smartest Guys in the Room....and keep a bucket near by because you will get sick. Several times.
...and in both instances it was a big fat fail. You can never have a country of Republics.
If you remove all of the slavery and racism stuff from the Confederacy, you will see what you propose in action. Some people seem to think that they fell apart because of the onslaught of the Union Army (which is true in view of things) but for the most part it was because they could never agree on anything from the very beginning. This was because of a lack of a strong central government.
...and in both instances it was a big fat fail. You can never have a country of Republics.
If you remove all of the slavery and racism stuff from the Confederacy, you will see what you propose in action. Some people seem to think that they fell apart because of the onslaught of the Union Army (which is true in view of things) but for the most part it was because they could never agree on anything from the very beginning. This was because of a lack of a strong central government.
In short, we need reform, not dissolution.
Good post.
Im not saying to decentralize the federal government, Im saying they should make do with much less and much of the spending on services should be given back to the pervue of states.
In fact, it makes a lot of sense to me because so much of the gridlock in DC is due to clashing idealogies over how to spend money. If we took that responsibility away from DC and back to Sacramento, Austin, Albany et al, each state could better allocate funds to issues that are important to them.
I agree we need serious reform, but I think I would like the reform to be more drastic than you probably think.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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Actually I forgot about New Jersey.
New Jersey's Total State Debt: $167,300,145,581
New Jersey gets chopped up so badly by the US Government. First of all they don't even get back half of what they give, and they're placed with a higher debt per capita than any other state.
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