|
Friday, May 24th, 2013 |
|
Home
RSS Feed
Newsletter
Boomark Us
Facebook
Twitter
|
|
16 Facts That Show How Members Of Congress And Federal Workers Are Living The High Life At Your Expense
Activist Post
by Michael Snyder Once upon a time, working for the federal government was considered to be a sacrifice and it often involved a significant reduction in pay. Millions of Americans felt that serving their country and making a difference more than made up for the reduced wages that they would receive. Unfortunately, those days are long gone. Today, the federal government is the place to go if you want a cushy, high-paying job with tons of benefits. It is incredibly hard to be fired from a federal job, and if you stick around long enough you will be guaranteed a huge pension for the rest of your life. The laziness at some federal agencies is absolutely legendary. Trust me, I used to work in Washington D.C. and I have seen the mindset firsthand. Some federal buildings are absolute ghost towns at 5:01 PM. Hordes of federal workers are just putting in their time, collecting their fat paychecks and counting down the days until retirement. And members of Congress are some of the worst offenders when it comes to milking the American people. Yes, members of Congress have fat salaries and enormous pensions, but it is the host of “funds” and “expense accounts” that they have access to where the worst abuse takes place. For example, did you know that more than $33,000 was spent in 2010 on the hair care needs of U.S. Senators? That comes to more than $300 per Senator. The truth is that most members of Congress and most federal employees don’t really care that other Americans are absolutely breaking their backs to pay the taxes that fund this system. Most of them enjoy milking the American people and most of them have absolutely no intention of changing the system that has been so incredibly good to them.There is a reason why the median household income is higher in the Washington D.C. area than anywhere else in the nation. The U.S. government is the goose that just keeps laying golden eggs. Over the past 40 years there has been an incredible economic boom in the areas of Virginia and Maryland bordering our capital. But it is not because those areas have added value to our economy. Rather, it is because the federal government has been sucking the lifeblood out of the rest of the country and has been showering it on millions of parasites that are living the high life at our expense. Nobody is saying that we should shut the government down. All societies need government. However, the cold, hard truth is that our bloated federal government has gotten wildly out of control.We desperately need to change course, because our federal government has become a deeply corrupt monster that just keeps getting larger and larger no matter which political party is in control. The following are 16 sickening facts that show how members of Congress and federal workers are living the high life at your expense…. #1 Nearly 500,000 federal employees now make at least $100,000 a year. #2 In 2006, only 12 percent of all federal workers made $100,000 or more per year. Now, approximately 22 percent of all federal workers do. #3 If you can believe it, there are 77,000 federal workers that make more than the governors of their own states do.#4 In 2010, the federal government spent $33,387 on the hair care needs of U.S. Senators. #5 In 2010, U.S. Senators pulled $72,370 out of the “Senate Restaurant Fund”. #6 In 2010, U.S. Senators took $166,673 out of something called the “Senate Gift Shop Revolving Fund”. #7 In 2010, an average of $4,005,900 of U.S. taxpayer money was spent on “personal” and “office” expenses per Senator. #8 Cooks working for the Bureau of Prisons make an average of $66,225a year. #9 During 2010, the average federal employee in the Washington D.C. area received total compensation worth more than $126,000. #10 During 2010, compensation for federal employees came to a grand total of approximately 447 billion dollars. #11 According to the Heritage Foundation, federal workers on average make 30 to 40 percent more money than their counterparts in the private sector. #12 The U.S. Department of Defense had just nine civilians earning $170,000 or more back in 2005. When Barack Obama became president, the U.S. Department of Defense had 214 civilians earning $170,000 or more. By June 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense had 994 civilians earning $170,000 or more. #13 If you are a federal worker, you are 13 times more likely to die of natural causes than you are to get laid off by the federal government. #14 Insider trading is 100% legal for members of Congress, and they refuse to pass a law that would change that. #15 At this point, more than half of those “serving the American people” in Congress are millionaires. #16 Nearly 15,000 retired federal workers are collecting federal pensions for life worth at least $100,000 annually. The list includes such names as Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Trent Lott, Dick Gephardt and Dick Cheney. Meanwhile, much of the rest of the nation is deeply suffering.As I have written about previously, 77 percent of all Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck at least part of the time, and a whole host of statistics show that the middle class in America is in a deep state of decline. Median household income has declined by 8.1 percentsince the year 2000, and 14 million more Americans have been added to the food stamp rolls since Barack Obama became president. It is not right for members of Congress and federal employees to be living the high life while the rest of the country is experiencing tremendous economic pain. What makes all of this even worse is that the U.S. national debt has now reached the 16 trillion dollar level. If we could pay for all of this wild government spending that would be one thing, but the truth is that the U.S. national debt is now more than 22 times larger than it was when Jimmy Carter became president. We cannot afford this kind of spending.We need to totally change the culture in Washington. We need a government that is lean and efficient and that is full of people that have a passion for serving the public. So do you think that we will ever get there? Please feel free to post a comment with your opinion below….
This article first appeared here at the The Truth. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. Delivered by The Daily Sheeple Contributed by Activist Post of Activist Post. Please share: Spread the word to sheeple far and wide
Leave A Comment... |
Break away from the herd and stay up to date with The Daily Sheeple.
           |
v.8
And most of those government employees are blacks that do basically NOTHING for their pay except BEING SHIFTLESS WHILE BLACK! Ever been to a D.C. government bureau or agency and tried to get something done IF any of the regal blacks even noticed you.
Without going into detail, your right!
You can’t go into detail because your statement is totally wrong.
As of 2010 Blacks made up <18% of the Federal Workforce. Whites makeup 66%.
http://www.opm.gov/feddata/ccog.pdf
Have you ever BEEN to government bureau or department? There are lies and then there are DAMN LIES according to a famous author.
‘Those that were first will be last and those that were last will be first.’
What does color have to do with this? It seems pay went up when bush was in office.
The author forgot all of their decorating expenses.
I can recall watching fdr driving in a convertible with the roof down on a rainy day just so he could be with the people. The man was in serious pain.
Who anoited the elite into royalty? Lots of health care and more jobs could certainly be provided, instead of welfare for the elite. Simply dispicable!
Every president remodels, including Obummer, Bush ran up one trillion in debt, Obummer has just hit four, in half the time in office.
Evie, I beg to differ with you as to when the pay began to skyrocket. I worked in that hellhole(DC) and the pay began to go up like crazy when Bill Clinton was in the WH.
It will change when it collapses. What we get after that is what we earn. If your weak you will not make it. It will be brutal for a while but ultimately freedom will prevail. It will just take a tougher society than we have now. Good Luck!
How do we get it all changed. The newly elected will be just as bad as the ones being voted out. With the healthcare and pensions continuing for the ousted ones, why would they care? They need to be investigated, held accountable and thrown into prison for their corruption and total disregard for the country and the people. The other problem is that the legal system and appointed judges are just as bad. What it will take is a total revolution and shutting off their funds.
Right, if it wasn’t FOR lawyers and judges, we wouldn’t NEED lawyers and judges. A lawyer is a person that makes a living out of showing another person how to get out of keeping his word. Lawyers should NOT be politicians, time to stop that practice too.
Term limits on all those elected. This should be service to the country not a lifetime job. These people are rich when they are elected and richer when they leave. Should receive no more pay than the average working American and NO PAY or BENIFITS after leaving office at the end of there term. Same goes for those appointed. It is time to end entitlement and welfare. If you did not pay into SS you should get NOTHING. If you did pay into SS you should get your benefits reguardless of any other retirement you might have. No funded Aboration as there are too many ways to prevent pregancy. Any help for unwed mothers should be limited to the first child only,after that you should know cause and effect and be accountable for any other children. We need more trade schools so people will have the skills to get a job and keep it.College is great but skills put food on the table for most people and without welfare are needed. For those of us who live in the real world we need to go back to basics for everyone. The common thing we all need is G-d back in our lives and in our government.
I have been saying the same thing for years that we need term limits at the Federal level most states have term limit, I live in Louisiana and we have Term limits for the state Government.
Gee, I must have retired to soon. I was a WG-12 with 35 years of service and retired at less than $2000. a month.
Know just how you feel,level 6 USPS clerk with 35 years of real working service and with my husbands medicine I can’t afford to retire.
I agree with Ted my wife has worked for the Goverment for 32 years and her take home pay is less than $1,300.00 a month she was GS7 10 and to make matters worse she worked in the privit sector before working for the goverment and because she works for the goverment the SS she earned she cannot collect the goverment consideres that double dipping. So tell me where do the get thierf figures?
Used to work as a civil servant in DC for 10 years from 1970 to 1980. Salary was well below norm for the field, so realized a substantial pay increase when left the government for a similar job in the private sector. Why leave? Not for better pay, but because of the frustration. The Federal bureaucracy was overbearing and HIGHLY inefficient. Our office was technical, not administrative, but bureaucratic BS consumed at least 50% of my time, based on 2 years of time analysis data I recorded to evaluate my own productivity. My brother-in-law was a Federal forest ranger who loved the forestry work, but also resigned because of the overbearing Federal bureaucracy. This was in the 70′s, so the bureaucratic inefficiency is bound to be worse now. Anyone who wants to be productive and make a positive difference in their field would do well to NOT work for the government, regardless of the pay. After 25 additional years in a wide range of private sector jobs in the same technical field, my conclusion was — the bigger the organization, the more inefficient. Size begets inefficiency, both in public and private sectors. The Federal government, being the biggest bureaucracy in the country (if not the world), is thus the most inefficient. If you want a job done as quickly and inexpensively as possible, give it to the smallest organization capable of doing it — definitely NOT the Federal government! Anyone who thinks Obamacare is going to be better than what they have now (even if it is no insurance at all) has no conception what they are getting into. They will be sorry!!
The above is why we’re voting for Romney/Ryan, conservatives who will bring these atrocities to a screeching halt!!! WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!!!!
The problem isn’t that they are wasting too much money in DC, and not enough on the rest of us. The problem is that they are wasting more money than we’ve got, period.
From what I read quite a few are millionaires at taxpayer expense. Perhaps the answer lies in having the taxpayer pay for the campaigns and no donations be taken. That eliminates the millionaire being able to out spend competitors. That eliminates special interest obligating a candidate. It might prove cheaper than the way it is now. The job would be paid for while they had it and for a transition of years until they could find another job. They would need to take what the people want to heart, have a platform people would be willing to vote for or they would be replaced by the other guy who does. Next is an even more radical thought. Only those who have a stake in the nation get to vote. Taxpayers, job holders of all diversity get to vote. If you are on the Government pay and do not work then yu do not vote.
Cancel union membership for government workers. The government has plenty of regulations in place that protect government employees and assure that employee evaluations are performed on a regular basis. Regulations provide for regular salary increase and provide government employees with excellent retirement benefits and a very good health benefits package. We do not need a union controlling government employees making it more expensive for the taxpayers.
Abolish government worker unionization.
The criticisms are mild. As a whistleblower, I have learned that the federal civil service is nothing but organized crime with sovereign immunity. Justice Department lawyers will spend as much money as necessary to defend their delinquent agencies, and it is understood that federal civil servants will not be prosecuted for felonies they commit. They cannot be sued personally because of “sovereign immunity.” In 1997, I was offered $20,000 to withdraw from a federal civil service selection. As a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, I was blocking the hiring certificate for a much less qualified non-veteran. The money was to be misappropriated from funds earmarked for equipment purchases. The Special Counsel substantiated these facts, and the U.S. Forest Service was forced to hire me. It then hired a person with experience firing scientists at the Department of the Interior just to get rid of me before the end of the probationary year. During hearings before the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB), this person and another employee committed perjury and got caught at it. The administrative judge said that perjury was OK because the Board is not a criminal court and has no power to do anything about perjury. The Forest Service then blacklisted me throughout the United States for blowing the whistle on the bribe offer and writing a report showing that a $200,000 research project was simply junk science. I later received the highest score on more than 50 examinations for vacancies with the Department of the Interior. During more hearings before the MSPB, I learned that almost all of the non-veterans hired for the positions were fully unqualified. The jobs were at the level of full professor, which requires a PhD and publication of many research results with any employer in the private sector. More than half of the successful non-veterans who were selected had not even earned a master’s degree, and very few had ever authored a scientific publication. Apparently, only two women were hired. All others were white males, except for one Puerto Rican hired for a job in Puerto Rico. No preference-eligible veterans were ever selected, although the Department of the Interior falsely claimed to have hired two. Obviously, affirmative action had nothing to do with the illegal activities.During proceedings, which were decided on the basis of fraud committed by the MSPB itself, civil servants committed perjury in writing, obstruction of justice, fraud, and a whole series of misdemeanors and prohibited personnel practices just to keep veterans out of their agencies.
I must be in the wrong career field. I’m a GS-6 and after taxes and a whole host of money taken for things I’ll never benefit from my take home is only $1900 a month. Where are the fat pay checks I keep hearing about? I work as an emt and work 24hr shifts. There is some laying about but once it hits the fan there is no being lazy. Americans are getting bigger and not in a good way. 200lbs + patients are the norm these days. So is it just in DC fed employees get the fat pay?
That’s what you get for WORKING WHILE WHITE!
Term Limits! One term; no retirement benefits; same Medicare plan as the rest of us; pay into social security like the rest of us. Then, possibly, Congress could focus on issues instead of their next election; could focus on the United States instead of their political party. Maybe then they would get serious about protecting their children and grandchildrens’ future. Maybe then, they would get serious about stabilizing Social Security. Term Limits is the only way to accomplish these necessary goals!
I do not think $60,000 a year is too much for a cook. Some make over $100,000 a year. The problem with government and corporations is you have top executives making $500,000 or more just to figure out how to save a nickel on labor. No one ever says they are not worth the money. How much growth do they contribute to?
A mailman and his wife live in a $300,000 home in my neighborhood. Both work and just sent their kid to college. Are you saying they are not worth the money?
I tried for years to get a federal job. Passed the civil-service exam with a near perfect score. Problem was, I wasn’t black, wasn’t a woman and wasn’t a disabled veteran. Not a chance in hell I’d get hired. Result? Never heard from them.
You just have to know the right people or have a last name in the beginning of the alphabet.
Unless they changed the system. Be careful ad a lot of jobs they are eaget to hire you have a huge turnover. For every 200 or so sitting on their butts there is one person doing all of the work.