Mark,

You are right on target! My wife and I are in our 60s and have been writing and voicing the same for years.

I thank God for you and your staff and will continue to support in prayer and finance.

Kerry Anderson

Bellingham, WA

As a 20+ year federal employee, I would like to make one clarification. The pay scales are not GSA scales; they are OPM scales (Office of Personnel Management).

I love it when Economics 101 and Constitutional Principles 101 are taught together in the same venue - they are mutually inclusive. Great class, Mark!

I have been a subscriber to the Patriot Post for a few years now and can say that I definitely do NOT support the current administration in our country. I am also a Federal worker with the DOD and have proudly been for the last 10 years. Everyday I read how much Federal workers are paid over the private sector and I have to laugh. This is not something that you can just make a blanket statement about. There are Federal jobs that people are overpaid in, and something needs to be done about that, but not all Federal jobs. I chose to look for a job in the DOD right after 911 because I felt a calling to support my country. I served in the Air Force, got out and worked in the private sector for a few years, and then got hired as a civil servent with the Air Force. I, along with probably 95% of my fellow co-workers in the DOD, feel the same. In my job, I could be making much more in the private sector, but instead chose to support our military and make a little less. Do I feel like I am in a little more secure job? Sure, but doesn't everyone with a family hope for that? There are different pay levels in the federal govt (ie Wage Grade, General Schedule, etc). WG's are considered blue collar and GS's white collar. Every job in the federal govt is looked at and rated differently for pay. Myself and others in my particular job definitely think we should make more but we don't. Also, not all of the federal govt is run and managed by such a strong union (ie USPS). I am thankful that our union (that we are represented by automatically but it is a personal choice to pay into, I choose NO!) isn't strong where I work because we have seen how it can backfire and cause bases to close. I just wanted to express my opinion and let people know that it isn't as easy as saying get rid of federal workers or cut their pay. Some of us struggle in the federal workforce also but our Patriot pride makes up for it. Go Air Force!

Yes, as stated the present level of one's government job, THAT salary is frozen but an employee can still move into another GS level etc. to receive more money..So big deal.

"After gaining work experience, people often qualify for higher GS levels. 1 year of experience related to the job could raise your grade by one GS level in most clerical and technician positions. In administrative, professional, and scientific positions, GS level increases in increments of two until you reach a GS-12. After that, GS level increases one level at a time. Each additional year of experience at a higher level of responsibility, your GS level could continue to increase until it reaches the maximum for your occupation."

If you change job title changes say police to border patrol status or criminal investigator..so many ways, so many levels.

Govt. workers can also get "premium" pay, granted "when the employee must work overtime, on holidays, on weekends, at night, or under hazardous conditions".

Benefits and union membership with all the perks goes along with it. What, they worry?

http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs041.htm

http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/employ/govtjob/fedjob.htm

I don't know if Obama thinks the American public is just plain stupid or he just has no clue! Or is it just:

"Obama's wage-freeze charade".

Where is the liberal's rebuttal? What's that? The sound of a pin dropping.

Until the house and senate have LIMITED terms like "Bozo" little if anything will change.

Information provided by the government regarding employment, taxes or the economy is so full of it...bio fuel could be in trouble.

A page of history could be taken from Denmark and who comes "in country." Instead of giving the rest of the farmstead away..." why not tell everyone the truth and let's suffer the pain now so my grandchildren can be as proud as I once was...

In Soviet Russia after the fall, they had onerous tax rates and the economy was in shambles. The Russian populace were employing their version of Victory Gardens by growing and selling their own produce and foods in their local farmer's market. The economy was almost totally underground; you could find anything and everyting cheaper in their huge black market. All of this only exacerbated the deficit (tax-revenue) problem!! Then, in a desparate move, Russian politicos changed to a flat tax. Wow, businesses flourished. Tax revenues went through the roof! If only Obama would look to his idols and review the Communist's 'algebraic-tax-proof' in Russia!!

I wish that you all had information on exactly what the terrorists have tried, and are planning on trying. The hard workers at TSA are trying to keep all people safe as they travel about. They do this by providing very thorough screening measures. They also treat evryone equally and with dignity. These workers are also underpaid, and our tyrannical president has frozen their pay for 2 to 3 years. They should be thanked for performing their job and their service to this country.

Regards,

Robert

Here's a law I'd like to see enacted.

Come October 1st, if there were no federal budget signed by the President, then all pay and benefits for members of congress and their staffs and members of the executive and their staffs would be terminated and remain so until a signed budget was in place.

The salaries for the above noted personnel would be reduced by 5% for each week beyone October 1st that the budget remained unsigned.

We are now nine weeks (17%) into fiscal year 2011, still with no approved budget in place. The officers of a company in the private sector would have been fired long ago for a performance like that.

I have a small quibble with the chart showing a budget surplus in the late 90's. Didn't happen. According to the Treasury Dept's web site, the total U.S. debt went up every year in the 90's. And 80's, 70's, 60's as well. Only by Enron style accounting did the so-called surplus exist.

Mr. Alexander your articles are usually of the highest caliber, but this time you slipped. In your article “Who Got Stimulated” you said,” (Oh, and Mr. Speaker-to-be, sell Pelosi's opulent Boeing 757, and refund the treasury.)” The Speakers’ opulent transportation, as you have pointed out in the past, is an Air Force Asset. The Air Force was tasked to provide the Speaker of the House more secure transportation than Public Air transport offered. She upped her requirements for a larger jet, hence the 757, because her entourage couldn’t travel with her in the smaller jet provided. Thank you for an inspiring article minus that one small point.

@ Robert Hardman re: TSA

Since 9/11 I have yet to read the headline story about the TSA agent at the airport who caught a terrorist and averted disaster. Just show me one story...PLEASE!

I have read hundreds of stories about the TSA agents confiscating fingernail clippers and bottles of hand lotion...and now feeling up (in a dignified way of course) old nuns and young children.

Please, tell me again how TSA agents are performing a service to this country?

Greetings!

You said John Kennedy was the ‘father of the modern Democrat party’, I disagree. It’s not been the same since LBJ took over! In fact, it has gone more liberal with each year!

The spending/borrowing prior to Obama was not as rosy as the graph shows. The increase in national debt is a lot more than the "deficit" figures the lamestream media reports. What is more important is the year-to-year increase in the national debt.

FY Increased debt

2010 1,651,794,027,380

2009 1,885,104,106,599

2008 1,017,071,524,650

2007 500,679,473,047

2006 574,264,237,492

2005 553,656,965,393

2004 595,821,633,587

2003 554,995,097,146

2002 420,772,553,397

2001 133,285,202,313

Confirm it youself from the Treasury website

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm

Mike, I couldn't agree MORE with your comments to Robert @TSA.

Nowhere in the history of warfare against a known enemy combatant has a government conducted detailed surveillance and warrantless searches of its OWN PEOPLE - except in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union - and now the United Socialist States of America. The fact that our fascists in charge are violating EVERYONE's fourth Amendment rights to do so is, of course, their real purpose. Just a few scares thrown in here and there - that don't amount to squat - is all it takes to keep the cowards crowing for safety and security.

If you want to serve the real America, Robert, you're on the WRONG side.

I'm disturbed that you did not distinguish between Federal government workers and State/local government workers when making this observation. "Compared to more productive private sector employees, ... hourly government workers are paid 57 percent more than those in the private sector for comparable jobs." In my state, Georgia, State government workers make far less than their private sector counterparts and local government workers often are barely above the minimum wage. The trouble is the general public reads statements like you made and assumes ALL government workers have high salaries and great benefits.

Well Mark, now that I know that I was an overpaid underperforming civilservant leach for 34 years, most of it in the Naval Air Systems Command as a member of various project management teams whose responsibility was to assure private contractor delivery of weapons systems that aid the warfighter in defense of our country - a constitutionally sanctioned function of our government, I believe - I guess I'll have to re-evaluate this cushey retirement that I've EARNED. I never knew I made so much money in comparison to the private sector. I guess I'll have to reassess out how is was that most all of my contractor counterparts on my project teams always had the hot cars, huge modern homes, big boats and lots of other toys while I felt fortunate to buy a modest new car every 13 years and pay the mortgage on a small home in a modest neighborhood - go figure ?? Much more I could write, but I doubt it would matter. Thanks for the re-education.

"For his part, poor Barry Obama lamented this week that he might have to delay his "holiday vacation" to Hawaii in order to get his tax-and-spend agenda through Congress."

It is patently obvious that barry soetoro and queen michelle - who announced on a European vacation this year that she hated her "post" - are living like Louis and Marie Antoinette. They display the same attitude and arrogance toward the citizens of the country they purport to represent so they no doubt see themselves entitled to appropriate the same life style at our expense for the rest of their lives.

carter started the "committee" to stop dependency on foreign oil and since that time it has grown and grown and grown til they now have a large building and hundreds and hundreds working on this and ---doing notdhing. why should we keep paying them

As usual, some great points while leaving out some inconvenient ones that call your conclusions into question. I'll address the one I have direct experience with: federal workers and federal pay. In this case, your statistics miss the impact of all the contracting that has gone on in recent years. At my last unit before I retired from active duty we were told to contract out as much as we could (by the administration of our first MBA president) because it was cheaper in the long run. So we contracted out our IT shop, our logistics shop and the dozens of new employees we added to cope with the surge after 9-11. Some things, however, have to be done by federal employees, so we kept one person in the IT and logistics shops to run those operations. So we went from a normal spread of salaries among dozens of federal employees to one relatively highly paid employee per office (although they made less per year than the best-paid contractors). Many, many other organizations did the same thing. So by doing what we are told is the responsible thing, we created a set of statistics that people like you now hold against federal employees.

Another fact people fail to connect with the average-salary issue is that a good percentage of the federal workforce is either retirement-eligible or almost so. That means they are in their peak earning years, and many of them have been with the government 30 or 40 years. This, too, will skew the numbers.

People can talk all day about the quality of the federal workforce. My experience has only been in the DoD, and most of that in the Army. I am as proud to work with some of my co-workers now as I was to work with some of my co-workers when I was in uniform. You find dead wood in the federal ranks just the same as you find dead wood among the uniformed ranks, and just the same as you find it among the private-sector civilians you seem so enamored of. You must lead a charmed life if your phone company, cable company, local department stores, etc., are staffed only by hard-working, supremely competent patriots. I find myself dealing with plenty of people who, while they are employed by the businesses to which I pay a lot of money, don't contribute anything more to anyone's bottom line than the worst federal workers do.

I'll take the pay freeze without complaint, just as I'll probably take a raise in my Tricare insurance rates. And I'll come in and do what the Army tells me needs doing while you're...well, sitting on your high horse bitching about how the world doesn't line up with your ideology.

As a general rule I think the salary differences might be true and I do know of many people who are oaid more than they are worth but this is not always the case. For example I am a construction Safety Engineer, employed for 8 years by the government. In the civilian world I was making over 100k/yr before I came here and 4 of my collegues who are still out there in the civilian world that I have worked with over the past 25 years are making over $150K even now in this economy. As a GS employee, I make half as much as they do and 30K less than I did in the civilian world. But Yes, as a matter of fact I did take this job because of the security it offered over the long term. In the civilian world companies were always re-organizing and when they did it seems that the Safety/Environmental people were always the first to be let go. I took the pay cut in exchange for the security. I just wanted to let you and your readers know that all GOV employees are not living high on the hog!

Congress controls the purse strings. When Pelosi and Reid rose to their present jobs in January, 2007, the deficit was $161 billion. It had been on a downward trajectory from $413 billion in 2004. Three years later, the Pelosi-Reid Congress had added $1.2 trillion to the deficit. Of course, Mr. Bush sponsored or signed into law many of these deficit-raising bills, such as the bank bailouts and effective tax rebates of 2008 but the Democrat Congress passed them. Long forgotten is the promise Pelosi made on the day she became Speaker: "Our new America will provide unlimited opportunity for future generations, not burden them with mountains of debt." In January, 2007, the CBO projected a $379 billion surplus over the next decade. Now, after four years under Pelosi and Reid and two years of Obama in the White House, the 2007-2016 projection is a deficit of $7.16 trillion.

“Facts are troublesome things.” -- John Adams

"Compared to more productive private sector employees, whose income is confiscated to pay government wages and benefits," How misleading can you get. I'm truly shocked that you, Mark, would make such an unfounded statement. What studies do you cite to support that private sector emp are more productive? And I guess those gov't emp salaries aren't confiscated. Having worked for 35 yrs as an under paid and very productive Fed employee, I take offense at that statement and it's lack of truthfulness. Shame on you Mark Alexander. Two of my good friends who worked private sector comparable jobs made 75% more than I with better leave and health benefits. And the pay scale is General Schedule by OPM not GSA.

In our area people can make more privately employed than in the federal government. There is job security, but we choose that on purpose and people have been let go for lack of productivity. I would not mind having a pay freeze for a year if other things, such as NPR, frivolous research projects, etc. had already been eliminated from the budget. I would rather pay those supporting the military, than for classical music (and I enjoy classical music).

This has to be the most I've learned from the commenters following one of Mark's pieces yet.

I think that Liberals could not have rendered such strong differences civilly.

At the end of the day, there are surely immense parts of the Federal structure we could and truly must do without. There are also great and vital elements which must be maintained and honored. And I don't think Mark's aim is to razz our civilian military support staff. The most salient point here is that Obama's gang has bloated the ranks of Federal employees for pure political expediancy, while Federal Dept is exploding. Not Good.

Mike McGinn, your note to Hardman is right as rain.

We are at war and there will be casualties.

Freedom must not be among them.

The second ammendment should extend to the air. It's purpose has no less effect at 10,000 feet.

Correct me, someone, but has a handgun ever brought down a commercial airliner? Would not a shoebomber and a pantybomber full of lead do a lot more for our morale than 67,000 TSA Gropers?

While I agree with most of this and other expressions shared here, as a 15 yr government employee I don't feel my 39k per year is disportionate to the work I expend to get it. In fact I worry if I will continue to be able to provide for my family of 5 with the inevitable taxation coming from Barry O. and no COL increase to offset them. Surely there are better ways to make a meaningful impact without making a show of fluff at the expense of those who work for the gov and strive to make a decent living.

@ Neil W. Thomas re: Govt pay

Sir. As someone who has worked NAVAIR on both the active duty and contractor sides of the fence I can confidently tell you that I've seen government workers who were worth their weight in gold (perhaps like you might have been in your 34 years of dedicated service) and many others who were a waste of oxygen. All communities have that spectrum of workers in some amount thus I generally ignore arguments about performance.

Where you might not be looking at the whole picture is that on the average, federal employees are paid more than their private sector counterparts. The contractors you worked with at NAVAIR are so heavily immersed in government contracts that they may as well be considered government employees. You also probably worked with some of those giant contractors that have near monopoly locks on government business, with outrageous rates and fees that they charge (which pays for those fancy cars and houses). Many of the smaller "mom-n-pop" companies don't have that advantage and have to bid more competitive prices (and they drive cars and live in homes like yours).

Once you get outside the government contract world, that world where non-government associated private sector folks do business with othere non-government associated private sector folks, the salaries are much, much lower.

I proposed an idea for a bill to Senator Kyl for his consideration. Have heard nothing about it to date. It was regarding pensions and other retirement perks for all government "workers". The short of it was that upon retirement their retirement package would be determined by the people of the state /district by a vote of the people they "represented?" as to whether they got the golden parachute or not. Now I can understand why that suggestion has "died on the vine".

How about dumping this highly speculative "article" with something containing some actual TRUTH?

"Indeed, tax reductions in each of the last five administrations have resulted in tax revenue increases to the fed's coffers". REALLY??? I guess the 1.4 Trillion debt it has cost us for the last 10 years to give these UNFUNDED tax breaks has really helped the government get out of debt right??

"(Oh, and Mr. Speaker-to-be, return Pelosi's opulent Boeing 757 to the Air Force, and settle for something smaller.)" Come on now...this was proven ABSOLUTELY false over 2 years ago! As for the rest of the article..SPECULATION using math does not make your distortion any more true. GET SOME REAL FACTS!

I totally agree...i was a federal worker in Washington for 20 years and the abuse of funding and power and lack of people actually working was pitiful. it made me sick, and all they did was complain about everything...they're getting paid ridiculous amounts of money for salaries, and they hire outside contractors to actually do the work that the feds won't do because they are not qualified to do, so they "monitor" the contractors work...it's such a waste fraud and abuse of the tax payers dollars...

In your essay you say, "Well, given the fact that federal bureaucrats are now endowed with grossly disproportionate wages and benefits, one can understand why retirement remains attractive for them." This is a very broad brush to paint with. It would be far preferable for this loyal reader for you to cite specifics rather than such a gross generalization. I also object to the use of the word bureaucrat in the perjorative sense that it is commonly used. As a retired Navy civil servant, I can assure you that in many contexts, those who choose to work for the government earn every penny and more that they are paid and are extraordinarily loyal, hard-working, creative, and dedicated public servants who do not deserve the opprobruim that is heaped upon them by virtually everyone.

Mark, I generally enjoy your articles and am a supporter (including financial donations) of the Patriot Post. However, I am disappointed with this particular article and in my book you lost a little credibility. For the reasons mentioned in the comments above. An illogical comparison of salaries for jobs that are not equivalent jobs and the assumption/attitude that all federal employees are inefficient bureaucrats. Although, I agree that government has gotten too big, picking on the working level as being overpaid and non-productive is not the answer. When I started at NASA, the starting salary offers I had from private companies were significantly more (almost 50% more in one case) than my NASA offer but I chose NASA for technical challenges offered. Working and living in the Silicon Valley through the dot com boom, I saw many neighbors and non-NASA colleagues become millionaires, but nobody then was talking about us underpaid Federal Employees at that time. In general my colleagues at NASA and I are quite good at what we do, and for most of my career we have been underpaid compared to our private sector counter parts. I am not complaining, as I chose this job knowing the pro and cons of being a government employee, but as you can see from the comments from several hard working dedicating Civil Servants, in general we are not overpaid, so you should be more careful when writing misleading commentary as you will lose credibility, and then we (your readers) will start to doubt some of the other articles you write.

Let's address one point of fact that is never inserted in articles like this one. The only reason government workers get paid more is because they don't have pressure of seeing their jobs outsourced by private companies. Their is a direct relationship between lower wages and the increase in outsourcing by private companies. When government workers get paid more than private sector employees it is proof that outsourcing has gone to far. I guess you didn't vote for that!!!

It occurs to me that, perhaps the reason JFK actually understood the tax cut/increased tax revenues relationship and our current PoUS doesn't (or doesn't want to admit it) is that JFK actually came from money. The Obama's, as far as I know, didn't really have wealth until they started spending the United States'.

Thanks for your inciteful and practical interpretations of the DC shenanigans. I hope you met your budget needs. I'm trying to scrounge some nickels enough to send some support. I really appreciate your work.

One point that you made in this article is that each of the times tax rates have been lowered in previous administrations, that tax revenues have increased. I have heard this many times, and I believe that it is true. But it would help tremendously to put actual data to that claim.

How much additional revenue came in per year during the Reagan administration, for instance, than what the federal government received before the tax cuts? The same goes for the Bush tax cuts and the Kennedy tax cuts. If we are going to argue this then we need the hard data to point to.

What one government employee is paid vs a private employee is a straw man argument. How about 10 government employees paid 30% less than their private sector counter parts, but the private sector can accomplish the same job with only 5 private sector employees who get paid 30% more?

The real measure of Value is Output vs Cost. It's called "Efficiency". A word you never hear muttered when talking about government cost reductions because it has to do with "Productivity". I'll bet everything I have that any private sector work force can knock the socks off any government work force.

The free market (or what's left of it) keeps the private sector sharp. It sinks or swim baby. It can't get any more motivational and efficient than that. When the winner wins--we all win in with a product or service produced the most efficient way possible. It's not rocket science folks.

Sorry mr. and mrs government employee...its nothing personal...its just basic economics and human nature. You are a necessary evil and best kept in the constitutional box.

God I love Capitalism and Freedom and Liberty. It's an economic system built around the basic principles of nature. :) And who can argue against nature? You can bet liberals/statists/fascists/socialists can...and will forever.

Another conservative using data that is so far off that it is laughable. Read the article below for TRUE information regarding Federal salaries vs. Private sector!

http://factcheck.org/2010/12/are-federal-workers-overpaid/