'Government Doesn't Suck' Rally on Saturday

Government workers are "a lot of cool cats"....

The web-savvy Gen-Xer government employees will march alongside Jon Stewart's rally on Saturday, reports Washington Post, who happens to have a close tie with these government workers in promoting this fine idea of "Government Doesn't Suck".

I guess they are not aware that their salaries and benefits (which are twice those of the private sector workers) are paid by taxpayers, and just like Illinois state government workers who marched to demand tax increase so that they would retain their jobs and benefits, they don't seem to know when to keep quiet.

'Government Doesn't Suck' march planned (Ed O'Keefe, 10/25/2010 Washington Post)

Amid growing dissatisfaction with federal employees, a group of younger, web-savvy feds are planning to march on Saturday in defense of their coworkers on the sidelines of Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity."

Organizers of the "Government Doesn't Suck March" (their choice of words, not ours) were inspired in part by last week's Washington Post poll that revealed widespread negative perceptions of federal workers.

"We hear it day in and day out: the government sucks, federal employees are lazy and their positions are redundant," said march organizer Steve Ressler, founder of GovLoop, a social networking Web site for public servants.

"It's time to turn the tables and remind the world that government employees just happen to be people -- people that don't suck," Ressler said in a message sent to The Federal Eye on Sunday announcing the march. Government workers "are a lot of cool cats" who work hard, listen to good music and watch Stewart's "The Daily Show," "but that's all after they've spent a whole day keeping the country running," he said.

Simply amazing.

(So all the government workers are Democrats?)

And

The Washington Post maintains a content partnership with GovLoop as part of our coverage of the federal government.

At the end of the article, there is a list of the latest articles about varioius government agencies that Washington Post and other major news outlets (such as WSJ and NY Times) have published. Oh wait, "content partnership"... So, were these articles actually written by these web-savvy federal government employees, and MSM outlets were simply their conduits?

No, you don't say...

(Goebbels would be proud.)

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Getting Rich the Federal Way

I really love the way Drudge Report organizes the news headlines. Today (9:51 AM PST), we have, in the middle column:

Obama: 'I Do Think At A Certain Point You've Made Enough Money'...
[Comments on the website say "It's none of your business Mr. President.." and "Tell that to your pal Oprah.." So, here's Oprah..]

Oprah Winfrey $100 Million Deal With PROCTER & GAMBLE Rocks Industry...

Want to get rich? Work for feds...

The last link goes to an editorial at today's Washington Examiner:

"For decades, public sector unions have peddled the fantasy that government employees were paid less than their counterparts in the private sector. In fact, the pay disparity is the other way around. Government workers, especially at the federal level, make salaries that are scandalously higher than those paid to private sector workers. And let's not forget private sector workers not only have to be sufficiently productive to earn their paychecks, they also must pay the taxes that support the more generous jobs in the public sector.

"Data compiled by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis reveals the extent of the pay gap between federal and private workers. As of 2008, the average federal salary was $119,982, compared with $59,909 for the average private sector employee. In other words, the average federal bureaucrat makes twice as much as the average working taxpayer. Add the value of benefits like health care and pensions, and the gap grows even bigger. The average federal employee's benefits add $40,785 to his annual total compensation, whereas the average working taxpayer's benefits increase his total compensation by only $9,881. In other words, federal workers are paid on average salaries that are twice as generous as those in the private sector, and they receive benefits that are four times greater."

I'm afraid, though, the editorial board of Washington Examiner didn't check the numbers carefully. The average federal salary AND benefits in 2008 was $119,982. See this Cato Institute's article by Chris Edwards from last year showing the 2008 numbers.

The article continues to describe the difference between state/local government salaries and private sector salaries. Not as bad as the federal, but still a widening gap.

Here are two charts from the Cato Institute article that show the gaping gap between the federal worker and the private sector worker. And did you know that it has been like this for at least 10 years?

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