{"id":15750,"date":"2010-11-30T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2010-11-30T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=15750"},"modified":"2010-11-29T22:56:32","modified_gmt":"2010-11-30T04:56:32","slug":"obama-lifts-a-finger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=15750","title":{"rendered":"Obama Lifts a Finger"},"content":{"rendered":"

…just so no one can say he didn’t lift a finger to reduce a bloated federal sector in a move widely reported as a “move to the center.”\u00a0 A federal pay freeze yes, but consider this:<\/p>\n

The freeze doesn’t extend to new hiring, bonuses or step increases<\/a>. It doesn’t even match the three-year freeze recommended by the President’s deficit commission.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…and yet, it’s just to much to bear… it’s just not fair.<\/p>\n

To whom? Why the poor, the huddled, the downtrodden federal workers of course.<\/p>\n

American Federation of Public Employees President John Gage yesterday derided President Obama’s federal pay freeze as a “slap at working people.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That might be a stretch. I know a lot of “working people” and they might take offense at being lumped in with government desk jockeys who enjoy unmatched job security, perks and disproportionate pay.<\/p>\n

federal employees operate in a pay-and-benefit universe that no longer exists in the private economy. According to recent analyses by USA Today, total compensation for federal workers has risen 37% over 10 years\u2014after<\/em> inflation\u2014compared to 8.8% for private workers. Federal workers earned average compensation of $123,000 in 2009, double the private average of $61,000.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[tape rewinding sound]<\/p>\n

double<\/strong> the private average of $61,000. [emphasis and repetition mine]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unions like to argue that federal jobs are unique, yet in occupations that exist both in government and the private economy\u2014nurses, surveyors, janitors, cooks\u2014the federal government pays 20% more than private firms.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Liberals are right! There are <\/em>two worlds in America.<\/p>\n

an estimated 2.1 million nonmilitary full-time [federal] workers (excluding 600,000 postal workers)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…who live in a fairy-tale world of fat pay and unmatched job security. If it weren’t for the fact that even the Pentagon has windows, they would have no idea what “working people” even look like.<\/p>\n

Market forces have forced a painful but necessary redeployment of human capital in virtually every sector save one: the United States federal government. Obama’s less-than-token effort to realign the federal payroll with reality isn’t significant enough to be remembered let alone effect the fiscal reductions necessary to reduce our deficit.<\/p>\n

Mr. President, you can put your finger back down and go back to the pressing work of destroying our nation’s financial future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…just so no one can say he didn’t lift a finger to reduce a bloated federal sector in a move widely reported as a “move to the center.”\u00a0 A federal pay freeze yes, but consider this: The freeze doesn’t extend to new hiring, bonuses or step increases. It doesn’t even match the three-year freeze recommended […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pork-patrol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15750"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15768,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15750\/revisions\/15768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}