Does Congress or the Will of the People Any Longer Count?
The progressive left represented in the Obama Administration has adopted a Saul Alinsky motto, the ends justify the means. They have chosen to impose, rather than trust the process. Why else would they shred the constitution and ignore congress, a congress that they completely control. Make no mistake, this administration has a majority Congress that far surpasses that of the Republican majority in the early Bush II administration. All they need do is to co-operate with their own members of Congress and they could pass any law they desire. But they are both impatient, and unwilling to trust the process.
For instance when Congress exercised its Constitutional right by cutting funds to the radical group called Acorn, a group under indictment for voter fraud across the fruited plains (13 states), and a supporter of illegal immigration as well as prostitution, it was overturned by this Justice Department because the funding agreements were made ‘prior to the transgressions, and they had yet to have their day in court’. Note that the GM and Chrysler Bond Holders, who had a more legally binding agreement with private corporations, were virtually ignored in a similar situation. Why is one contract valid and the other invalid?
This administration has squandered its chances for fiscal responsibility. It has virtually tripled the national debt in merely 10 months and with its takeover of the health care system threatens to drive down its bond status to that of a third world nation. What is more the bailout packages which were guaranteed to keep unemployment below 8.5% have utterly failed, while unemployment has reached double digits.
The administration has also circumvented Congress by appointing czars, neither approved nor vetted by Congress, rather than fill their cabinet posts. These czars have been selected and are answerable to only the Executive Branch. They are made up in part of felons, communists, and anarchists (see below).
Perhaps the most egregious example of ignoring the will of the people is that of nationalized health care. The people have overwhelmingly spoken out against this health care catastrophe being forced through Congress. But it is full steam ahead for this administration as the puppet master pulls the strings of Pelosi and Reed sending us headlong over the cliff of fiscal responsibility.
Then there is the man made emissions disaster. What could be more telling than thousands of e-mails privately detailing the invalid conclusions of manmade emissions by the very experts that support this position? These same e-mails outline purposeful punitive actions and suppression of any research questioning their thesis. Yet, rather than investigate this leak, just last week the courts have allowed the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to declare carbon dioxide, the very gas exhaled by animals and inhaled by green plants, as a pollutant (see below). Oxygen and carbon dioxide are the two most necessary ingredients for life as we know it on earth. Yet one of them is now considered a pollutant. In light of these e-mails and common sense, is that not insanity? Wouldn’t controlling the vast forests and woodlands across our world make more sense? Why not plant more trees and prevent forest fires? Wood, after all, is our most plentiful ‘renewable resource’ and green plants are the most efficient and effective way to turn the dreaded carbon dioxide into oxygen. What could be more logical?But what bothers me the most is this administration’s arrogance. It neither knows any bounds, nor will it be kept within any traditional boundaries. The restrictions, heretofore guaranteeing personal liberties and limiting government, which have ruled our nation, are found within the document called the American Constitution. This document has been held as a blueprint for liberty throughout the world and written by our founders. Yet for the first time in our illustrious history we have a President who claims not only to know more than we the people, but the founders. Moreover, rather than attempting to export our standard of living, we are inanely attempting to drive ours down to equalize the misery around the globe. Unbelievably, this administration would rather drive us down to the standard of the rest of the world, than lift the world to the standard which democratic capitalism has afforded America.
You see, the administration has taken on their motto ‘change’ seriously. They seem to rationalize that this is what ‘we the people’ voted for, and their narrow definition of change is what we are getting; cap and trade to drive us down to a third world living standard, universal medical care, to equalize our longevity to that of the third world, and a distain for the constitution and individual rights, to equalize tyranny. The goal is to expand fundamentally change America from a free enterprise Constitutional Republic, to an Oligarchy (government by small group… ie czars). The executive branch, rather than improve America’s plight, has chosen to lower America’s standards while simultaneously raise the world’s, so that naively they believe we will meet somewhere in the middle. It is like a giant social experiment, one which has never succeeded, one which has always led to anarchy. Yet they convince themselves that because you voted for change, you voted for their definition of fundamental change. A change from Democratic Capitalism to Socialism ruled by an oligarchy… and well, you said he was the ‘real deal’, that he didn’t lie, and you never asked exactly what do you mean by ‘change’? So, the question is, how do you like it so far?
Blogger’s Corner:
From the Heritage Foundation:
Next week Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is expected to attach a provision to the Department of Defense appropriations bill that would increase our national debt limit by$1.925 trillion. This debt limit raise would authorize the U.S. Treasury to borrow as much as $14 trillion, which is 30% higher than the $10.8 trillion limit that was in place when President Barack Obama took office.
Defending the unprecedented size of the debt limit, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told The Examiner: “There is no doubt the debt ceiling will have to be at that level in order to meet our financial obligations at this time next year. This is not creating new debt.” Not creating new debt? Hoyer speaks as though he and his Speaker are completely powerless to control all the federal spending that is driving up “our financial obligations.” In fact, Hoyer’s statement comes on the same day that he and Speaker Pelosi forced through a $447 billion “minibus” spending bill that every single Republican and 28 Democrats voted against.
An analysis of global warming from Blogger John…Hi Bill – Hope all is well Bellavia way.
Check my analysis of this data if you have a moment.
Thanks, John
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/anomalies/index.html
This link is to NOAA’s data on global warming. I noticed yesterday and today as I searched for raw data that the “experts” always want to plot “anomaly” rather than raw temperature. This page tells the story – but the viewer has to dig. The average combined land-sea temperature from 1901 – 2000 was 13.9 degrees C or 57 degrees F. Thus the chart at the top of the page — the one used to dramatize the situation – shows 56.84 degrees F (13.9-.1=13.8C) at the left or 1901 plot and 58.1 F (13.9+.6=14.5C) for 2003 at the rightmost plot.
That is a change of about 1.3 degrees F over the century. Not very dramatic and according to a paleontologist climate take shows we are still is a global cold period (compared say to the age of the dinosaur).
What can I say, numbers don’t lie, but unfortunately people do! Good work John.
HR 615 -
On Tuesday, the Senate health committee voted 12-11 in favor of a two-page amendment, courtesy of Republican Tom Coburn which would require all Members of Congress and their staff members to
enroll in any new government-run health plan.
Congressman John Fleming has proposed an amendment that would require Congressmen and Senators to take the same health care plan as us. (Under proposed legislation they are exempt.)
Congressman Fleming is encouraging people to go to his Website and sign his petition. The process is very simple. I have done just that at: http://fleming.house.gov/index.html.
Senator Coburn and Congressman Fleming are both physicians.
Regardless of your political beliefs, it sure seems reasonable that Congress should have exactly the same medical coverage that we will have. Please urge as many people as you can to do the same!
Cailfornia Clint:
TO ALL,
WELL ITS BEEN A YEAR NOW, THE ECONOMY LOOKS LIKE IT COULD BE TURNING AROUND A BIT. HOWEVER AFTER VIEWING THIS VIDEO I SEE THAT THE THINGS THAT CAUSED ME AND THE MAJORITY TO VOTE FOR MR. OBAMA HAD THEY BEEN TRUE WOULD HAVE MADE A FOR BETTER AMERICA. I DON’T KNOW IF WE WERE LIED TO OR THE PRESIDENT JUST GOT LOST ALL I KNOW IS THE REASONS I VOTED FOR HIM DON’T SEEM TO EXIST. I HOPE AND PRAY THAT THE PRESIDENT WILL TURN AROUND AND REALIZE THE FOLLY OF HIS WAYS HOWEVER I WON’T HOLD MY BREATH
CLINT
http://www.theospark.net/2009/09/video-7-lies-in-under-2-minutes.html
My Response:
Ahh ha… and now we see… but if one would have read Alinsky (“Rules for Radicals is his self proclaimed ‘bible’… he taught it and believes its erroneous radical progressive conclusions.) or listened to,,, well almost any conservative, one would have realized that he ran on a platform of ‘the ends justify the means’… and lying is the means to the end. My fear is that if only we had a ‘MLK’ type as our first minority president we the people would never be hesitant to vote for another… but, as I have stated ad nausea, a radical is a radical is a radical, and I fear the electorate will tag his minority status with the word radical, rather than the individual… God help us if he doesn’t ‘change’
EPA Given Bold New Powers… here is an article by the AP
By DINA CAPPIELLO and H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer – Mon Dec 7, 4:41 pm ET
WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency took a major step Monday toward regulating greenhouses gases, concluding that climate changing pollution threatens the public health and the environment.
The announcement came as the Obama administration looked to boost its arguments at an international climate conference that the United States is aggressively taking actions to combat global warming, even though Congress has yet to act on climate legislation. The conference opened Monday in Copenhagen.
The EPA said that the scientific evidence surrounding climate change clearly shows that greenhouse gases “threaten the public health and welfare of the American people” and that the pollutants — mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels — should be regulated under the Clean Air Act.
“These long-overdue findings cement 2009′s place in history as the year when the United States government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at news conference.
The action by the EPA, which has been anticipated for months, clearly was timed to add to the momentum toward some sort of agreement on climate change at the Copenhagen conference and try to push Congress to approve climate legislation.
“This is a clear message to Copenhagen of the Obama administration’s commitments to address global climate change,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., lead author of a climate bill before the Senate. “The message to Congress is crystal clear: get moving.”
Under a Supreme Court ruling, the so-called endangerment finding is needed before the EPA can regulate carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases released from automobiles, power plants, and factories under the federal Clean Air Act… “The implications of today’s action by EPA are far-reaching…individual Americans and consumers and businesses alike will be dramatically affected by this decision,” said Charles T. Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association. Drevna, in a statement, said “it is hardly the time to risk the remainder of the U.S. industrial sector in an attempt to achieve a short-term international public relations victory.”…the EPA has begun the early stages of developing permit requirements on carbon dioxide pollution from large emitters such as power plants. The administration also has said it will set the first-ever greenhouse gas emissions standards for automobiles and raise fuel economy to 35 miles per gallon by 2016 to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
A Desperate December Deal… Heritage Foundation
If you are one of the few Americans who still subscribes, your morning newspaper probably has a headline like this: Democrats Reach Deal on Health Plan. Don’t believe it. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is still light years away from producing the 60 votes necessary to pass Obamacare out of the Senate. And the few details that have leaked out about this new “broad agreement” only reveal just how desperate Reid is to get any bill on to President Obama’s desk by the New Year.
Of course, there is no good policy reason why the Senate should be rushing the reorganization of one-sixth of our nation’s economy through their chamber. As leftist columnist E.J. Dionne has frankly admitted, the December deadline is a purely political invention, created for the sole purpose of enabling President Barack Obama to point to at least one accomplishment during his State of the Union speech in January. Details of the agreement have not been made public, and Senate Democrats are refusing to make them public until they hear back from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). But judging from what little has been selectively leaked to the public, this idea deserves to die:
Doubling Down on Debt: Medicare is already bankrupting our country. In 2007 alone, Medicare was forced to draw $179 billion from the general revenues of the U.S. Treasury. According to the latest Medicare trustees report, the program already faces $36 tril lion dollar long-term budget shortfall. Medicare’s annual drain on our resources is set to skyrocket in 2011 when the first wave of baby boomers retire. The new Senate deal would only make this problem worse by expanding Medicare eligibility to people without insurance between the ages of 55 and 64.
Death Sentence for Hospitals: The Reid Health Bill already delivers a huge blow to our nation’s hospitals by cutting Medicare reimbursements to hospitals by hundreds of billions of dollars. Moving millions of more Americans to Medicare would cut into hospital revenues even further. That is why both the American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals sent alerts yesterday urging their members to opposethe new Senate deal.
A Government Run Health Care Coup: You might think that leftists who have been dreaming about single payer, government run health care for years would be upset about the new Senate deal. They are not. The existing Medicaid expansions in the bill, and the new Senate deal Medicare expansions, are just a continuation of the left’s health care agenda since the defeat of Hillarycare: Slowly expand existing government programs so that all private health care is strangled out of existence. So instead of fighting to preserve the public option, leftist activist Chris Bowers urges readers to fight “to expand the Medicare buy-in to all Americans between the age of 55 and 64 (inclusive).” Progressive health care guru Ezra Klein says the new deal is better than the public option because “it seed[s] health-care reform with scalable experiments.”
When President Barack Obama gave one of his first national health care addresses in June, he instructedCongress: “As we move forward on health care reform, it is not sufficient for us simply to add more people to Medicare or Medicaid.” But after months of debate in Congress, that is all Obamacare has turned out to be.
From Blogger Grammy Sammie: OBAMA’S “CZARS”– Read who they are and realize what they want to do.
OBAMA’S CZARS
CZAR Czar Position Summary
Richard Holbrooke Afghanistan Czar Ultra liberal anti gun former Gov. of New Mexico. Pro Abortion and legal drug use. Dissolve the 2nd Amendment
Ed Montgomery Auto recovery Czar Black radical anti business activist. Affirmative Action and Job Preference for blacks. Univ of Maryland Business School Dean teaches US business has caused world poverty. ACORN board member. Communist DuBois Club member.
Jeffrey Crowley AIDS Czar Radical Homosexual.. A Gay Rights activist. Believes in Gay Marriage and especially, a Special Status for homosexuals only, including complete free health care for gays.
Alan Bersin Border Czar The former failed superintendent of San Diego . Ultra Liberal friend of Hilary Clinton. Served as Border Czar under Janet Reno – to keep borders open to illegal’s without interference from US
David J. Hayes California Water Czar Sr. Fellow of radical environmentalist group, “Progress Policy”. No training or experience in water management whatsoever.
Ron Bloom Car Czar Auto Union worker. Anti business & anti nuclear.. Has worked hard to force US auto makers out of business. Sits on the Board of Chrysler which is now Auto Union owned. How did this happen?
Dennis Ross Central Region Czar Believes US policy has caused Mid East wars. Obama apologist to the world. Anti gun and completely pro abortion.
Lynn Rosenthal Domestic Violence Czar Director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. Vicious anti male feminist. Supported male castration. Imagine?
Gil Kerlikowske Drug Czar devoted lobbyist for every restrictive gun law proposal, Former Chief of Police in Liberal Seattle. Believes no American should own a firearm. Supports legalization of all drugs
Paul Volcker E conomic Czar Head of Fed Reserve under Jimmy Carter when US economy nearly failed. Obama appointed head of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board which engineered the Obama economic disaster to US economy.. Member of anti business “Progressive Policy” organization
Carol Brower Energy and Environment Czar Political Radical Former head of EPA – known for anti-business activism. Strong anti-gun ownership.
Joshua DuBois Faith Based Czar Political Black activist-Degree in Black Nationalism. Anti gun ownership lobbyist.
Cameron Davis Great Lakes Czar Chicago radical anti business environmentalist. Blames George Bush for “Poisoning the water that minorities have to drink.” No experience or training in water management. Former ACORN Board member (what does that tell us?)
Van Jones Green Jobs Czar (since resigned).. Black activist Member of American communist Party and San Francisco Communist Party who said Geo Bush caused the 911 attack and wanted Bush investigated by the World Court for war crimes. Black activist with strong anti-white views.
Daniel Fried Guantanamo Closure Czar Human Rights activist for Foreign Terrorists. Believes America has caused the war on terrorism. Believes terrorists have rights above and beyond Americans.
Nancy-Ann DeParle. Health Czar Former head of Medicare / Medicaid. Strong Health Care Rationing proponent. She is married to a reporter for The New York Times.
Vivek Kundra Information Czar Born in New Delhi , India . Controls all public information, including labels and news releases. Monitors all private Internet emails. (hello?)
Todd Stern International Climate Czar Anti business former White House chief of Staff- Strong supportrer of the Kyoto Accord. Pushing hard for Cap and Trade. Blames US business for Global warming. Anti- US business prosperity.
Dennis Blair Intelligence Czar Ret Navy. Stopped US guided missile program as “provocative”. Chair of ultra liberal “Council on Foreign Relations” which blames American organizations for regional wars.
George Mitchell Mideast Peace Czar Fmr. Sen from Maine Left wing radical. Has said Israel should be split up into “2 or 3 “ smaller more manageable plots”. (God forbid) A true Anti-nuclear anti-gun & pro homosexual “special rights” advocate
Kenneth Feinberg Pay Czar Chief of Staff to TED KENNEDY. Lawyer who got rich off the 911 victims payoffs. (horribly true)
Cass Sunstein Regulatory Czar Liberal activist judge believes free speech needs to be limited for the “common good”. Essentially against 1st amendment. Rules against personal freedoms many times –like private gun ownership and right to free speech.
John Holdren Science Czar Fierce ideological environmentalist, Sierra Club, Anti business activist. Claims US business has caused world poverty. No Science training.
Earl Devaney Stimulus Accountability Czar Spent career trying to take guns away from American citizens. Believes in Open Borders to Mexico .. Author of statement blaming US gun stores for drug war in Mexico .
J. Scott Gration Sudan Czar Native of Democratic Republic of Congo . Believes US does little to help Third World countries. Council of foreign relations, asking for higher US taxes to support United Nations
Herb Allison TARP Czar Fannie May CEO responsible for the US recession by using real estate mortgages to back up the US stock market. Caused millions of people to lose their life savings.
John Brennan Terrorism Czar Anti CIA activist. No training in diplomatic or gov. affairs. Believes Open Borders to Mexico and a dialog with terrorists and has suggested Obama disband US military
Aneesh Chopra Technology Czar No Technology training. Worked for the Advisory Board Company, a health care think tank for hospitals. Anti doctor activist. Supports Obama Health care Rationing and salaried doctors working exclusively for the Gov. health care plan
Adolfo Carrion Jr.. Urban Affairs Czar Puerto Rican born Anti American activist and leftist group member in Latin America . Millionaire “slum lord” of the Bronx , NY. Owns many lavish homes and condos which he got from “sweetheart” deals with labor unions. Wants higher taxes on middle class to pay for minority housing and health care
Ashton Carter Weapons Czar Leftist. Wants all private weapons in US destroyed. Supports UN ban on firearms ownership in America .. No Other “policy”
Gary Samore WMD Policy Czar Former US Communist. Wants US to destroy all WMD unilaterally as a show of good faith. Has no other “policy”.
How lucky we are that these are the people who are helping President Obama in the RUNNING of our country and the White House?
Blogger Bud sends us this article on Algore:
Ahead of the Curve by James Dale Davidson Al Gore: A Global Warming Billionaire at Your Expense You knew Al Gore had crust when he took he left office as vice president to more than $100 credit for inventing the Internet. But truth be million now. told, Gore really is an inventive politician. The billions that Gore stands to make from He actually did invent a multitrillion-dollar cap-and-trade legislation make the AIG bonuses phenomenon that is poised to make him a look like pocket change and rival the proceeds billionaire – global warming. that kleptomaniac Third World despots such The idea that carbon emissions are turning as Joseph Desire Mobutu have pocketed from the earth into a hothouse is a hoax that Gore looting hopeless countries such as the Congo. But has maneuvered painstakingly to dignify. Gore has been more imaginative than Mobutu. Carbon dioxide was formerly present in He’s not looting just the United States – he’s the Earth’s atmosphere at 20 times today’s looting the whole planet. concentrations with no dire consequences, yet Unlike Mobutu, Gore doesn’t have to lug Gore has successfully orchestrated history’s best- suitcases full of cash to Switzerland. The world’s financed campaign of intellectual hysteria over governments are lining up to put big money in purely imaginary dangers of Gore’s pocket through carbon taxes. This is a atmospheric carbon. clever update on the ancient practice of “tax Gore not only has raised farming.” Instead of Gore’s getting a rake-off substantial private funds to back collecting taxes for governments, however, global warming alarmism but governments now are collecting taxes for him! hoax rivals also has helped steer $5 billion Cap-and-trade is the key to understanding per year of taxpayer funds how Gore’s scheme works. If approved, the to pay researchers to endorse legislation would mean governments place a alarms of climate catastrophe. “cap” on the amount of carbon dioxide emissions There is no evidence using that anyone can create. observed data over any time If companies go over their allocated limit, they scale that carbon dioxide, must buy a carbon credit from a company that or C02, has any effect on emits less carbon than its allocated limit – or temperature or climate. A greenhouse effect pay a hefty fine. linked to industrial emissions of C02 heating the Simply put, cap-and-trade will reduce our atmosphere is a myth. standard of living, raise our energy costs, and Oxygen isotope records from ice cores taken possibly even cost you your job. But it will make in Greenland show that the Earth has had four Al Gore a billionaire. major warm periods during the past 5,000 years. If you don’t believe it, look more closely.He Three of them preceded industrial society.They owns 10 percent of the exchange that will handle were all warmer than today. Carbon dioxide had almost every single carbon credit traded. nothing to do with it. That very exchange has cornered 99 percent Facts notwithstanding, 67 senators reportedly of the carbon trading market. Once the U.S. are poised to support plans for cap-and-trade cap-and-trade law is signed, it will give Gore a carbon taxes that promise to make Al Gore a government-sponsored monopoly. billionaire. Bloomberg reports that Gore already According to The New York Times, carbon has seen his net worth soar from $2 million when “will be the world’s biggest commodity market, Financial Intelligence Report perturbations in the earth’s orbit. Contrary to Gore’s and it could become the world’s biggest market alarms, the earth is not getting warmer. It is getting A report by New Energy Finance puts the value colder. of the carbon market at $1 trillion a year by 2020. Bill Livingston and Matt Penn of the National That’s a fantastic value for a market predicated Solar Observatory report that the magnetic strength on a hoax. In the first place, carbon dioxide is not of the sunspots, irrespective of their number, has a pollutant; it is a life-giving gas. But even if C02 declined in a linear fashion since at least 1990, were a bad thing, it makes up just 3/100ths of one suggesting that the spots could vanish in 2014 or percent (0.0386 percent) of the earth’s atmosphere, 2015 if the trend continues. of which a miniscule 0.0012 percent is from human The brightness of the sun has dropped a whopping 6 percent at extreme UV wavelengths since the solar minimum of 1996. Current sunspot activity has plunged below the Dalton minimum The Big Warming Lie associated with bitterly cold temperatures in the early years of the 19th century. When the full story of this global warming The period from January 2007 through hysteria is finally told, Gore’s achievement in September 2009 showed the sharpest drop in fabricating a global consensus that industrial worldwide temperatures in recorded history. prosperity is destroying the planet will be The Arctic icepack grew by 370,000 square miles appreciated as the inventive fraud that it is. (an area 1.5 times the size of Texas) in the past There has probably never been a better two years, and the most recent Antarctic snowmelt illustration of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph during austral summer of 2008-2009 is the lowest Goebbels’ axiom about the Big Lie: “If you tell a ever recorded. The Antarctic ice cover is now 30 lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will percent greater than its average over the past 30 eventually come to believe it.” years. The real source of “global warming,” such as it Global warming is a hoax. Only the money that is, is the sun. Solar energy reaching the earth varies will be made out of this scam is real. • cyclically with the number of sunspots and the
From Blogger Jim…
There is a sector which is booming…
For feds, more get 6-figure salaries
Average pay $30,000 over private sector
By Dennis Cauchon
USA TODAY
The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.
Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.
Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.
The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available.
When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.
The trend to six-figure salaries is occurring throughout the federal government, in agencies big and small, high-tech and low-tech. The primary cause: substantial pay raises and new salary rules.
“There’s no way to justify this to the American people. It’s ridiculous,” says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a first-term lawmaker who is on the House’s federal workforce subcommittee.
Jessica Klement, government affairs director for the Federal Managers Association, says the federal workforce is highly paid because the government employs skilled people such as scientists, physicians and lawyers. She says federal employees make 26% less than private workers for comparable jobs.
USA TODAY analyzed the Office of Personnel Management’s database that tracks salaries of more than 2 million federal workers. Excluded from OPM’s data: the White House, Congress, the Postal Service, intelligence agencies and uniformed military personnel.
The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker’s pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.
Key reasons for the boom in six-figure salaries:
•Pay hikes. Then-president Bush recommended — and Congress approved — across-the-board raises of 3% in January 2008 and 3.9% in January 2009. President Obama has recommended 2% pay raises in January 2010, the smallest since 1975. Most federal workers also get longevity pay hikes — called steps — that average 1.5% per year.
•New pay system. Congress created a new National Security Personnel System for the Defense Department to reward merit, in addition to the across-the-board increases. The merit raises, which started in January 2008, were larger than expected and rewarded high-ranking employees. In October, Congress voted to end the new pay scale by 2012.
•Pay caps eased. Many top civil servants are prohibited from making more than an agency’s leader. But if Congress lifts the boss’ salary, others get raises, too. When the Federal Aviation Administration chief’s salary rose, nearly 1,700 employees’ had their salaries lifted above $170,000, too
Watching Social Security Eat the Young Alive
By Bill Frezza
My 26 year old son got the most extraordinary letter from the Social Security Administration last week. In plain English it admitted that the system was a Ponzi scheme destined for bankruptcy more than a decade before he reaches retirement age. It warned that if he is to have any hope of retiring he’d better start saving on his own. Anyone who wasn’t personally hypnotized by FDR knows this to be true. Yet I was still surprised that such a frank government confession didn’t make national news.
The two-page pamphlet entitled “What young workers should know about Social Security and saving” reminds us that 50 million, or one in six, Americans will collect more than $614 Billion dollars in Social Security benefits this year. It informs young people that the Security Taxes they now pay go into a “Trust Fund” that is used to pay current beneficiaries. Paying off early investors with funds taken from later investors is precisely how Wikipedia defines a Ponzi scheme. The pamphlet advises that the Social Security Board of Trustees estimates that the “Trust Fund” will be depleted before my son’s 54th birthday. Because people are living longer and the birth rate is low, it goes on, taxes paid by workers in the future will not be enough to pay the benefits promised in his personalized retirement account statement enclosed with the pamphlet. Imagine what hell would break loose if Schwab or Fidelity Investments enclosed a confession like this when they mailed investors their 401(k) statements.
On top of the negative rate of return young people paying into Social Security are expected to suffer, the pamphlet concludes that my son should plan on taking anadditional 24% haircut on the benefits promised in his statement. This is the same healthy young kid being told that he will soon have to buy an artificially overpriced health insurance policy so his premiums can be redistributed to aging Baby Boomers lobbying Congress for free stuff.
Given the fact that Social Security will be bankrupt before my son even reaches my age, the pamphlet directs him to a handy web calculator that shows how much he will have to save every week if he hopes to retire on his own. Play with it for a few minutes and you realize that there is only one field in the calculator that really matters, and that is the rate of inflation. Plug in an annual inflation rate of one or two percent and the numbers look pretty reasonable as compound interest works its magic. But stick in the double digit inflation figures that were in vogue when Jimmy Carter was president and a funny thing happens. In order to prepare for retirement, young people would have to save more than they make!
Given the Vesuvius of cash the Fed pumped into the economy to disguise the real estate debacle, what do you think the odds are that inflation is going to stay at one or two percent?
Why do kids put up with this? Last time I checked they were old enough to vote. An entire generation is being systematically robbed by their parents with nary a peep. Why aren’t they marching in the streets like we did? When they do show up at the polls like sheep ready to be shorn, they pull the lever for kumbaya politicians promising to stick them with the bill for an ever-expanding menu of unfunded middle class entitlements.
There only conclusion I can come to is that we Baby Boomers have infantilized our children into idiocy.
Our kids got so used to being taken care of, educated, clothed, entertained, and driven to the mall that they somehow got the idea that this life of Reilly would go on forever. Little did they know that we were luring them into an adulthood of intergenerational slavery. Baby Boomers made a mess out of what was once the most productive economy in human history. Rather than atoning for our errant ways by paying our own bills, we seem determined to use Congress to squeeze every last bit of cash out of anyone we can get our hands on before we shuffle off this mortal coil. Après nous, le Déluge.
Impoverished by our incessant demands for free government services, our children will most likely get revenge by not providing us with any grandchildren. Even if they wanted kids, how will they afford them if half their paycheck is confiscated to take care of us? As the most self-absorbed generation in American history, I suppose Baby Boomers will find it easy to live out their days bereft of grandchildren, much as the French and Italians have. Can this really be the Great Society we’ve been promising to bequeath to posterity?
Bill Frezza is a partner at Adams Capital Management, an early-stage venture capital firm. He can be reached at bill@vereverus.com. If you would like to subscribe to his weekly column, drop a note to publisher@vereverus.com.
Lighter Side
You’ll like this one!
In slow-moving traffic the other day the car in front of me had an Obama bumper sticker on it. It read: “Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8″. So….I looked it up:
Psalm 109:8 – “Let his days be few; and let another take his place of leadership…..”
Lets all pray!
A man seeking to join an east texas sheriff’s department is being
interviewed.
The deputy doing the interview says: “your qualifications all look good,
but there is an attitude suitability test that you must take before you
can be accepted.”
then, sliding a service pistol and a box of ammo across the desk, he says:
“take this pistol and go out and shoot
six illegal aliens,
six lawyers,
six meth dealers,
six muslim extremists,
and a rabbit. ”
“why the rabbit?”
“great attitude,” says the sergeant. “when can you start?”
From blogger Bob:
An older man approached an attractive younger woman at a shopping mall.
‘Excuse me; I can’t seem to find my wife. Can you talk to me for a couple of minutes?’ The woman, feeling a bit of compassion for the old fellow, said, ‘Of course, sir. Do you know where your wife might be?’
‘I have no idea, but every time I talk to a young woman with big boobs, she appears out of nowhere.’
To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine…
And those who don’t.
As Ben Franklin said:
In wine there is wisdom,
In beer there is freedom,
In water there is bacteria.
In a number of carefully controlled trials,
Scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli,
(E. Coli) – bacteria found in feces.
In other words, we are consuming
1 kilo of poop.
However, we do NOT run that risk when
Drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum, whisky or other liquor), because alcohol has to go through a purification
Process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.
Remember:
Water = Poop, Wine = Health .
Therefore, it’s better to drink wine and talk stupid,
Than to drink water and be full of poop!
There is no need to thank me for this valuable information:
I’m doing it as a public service.