NYC Letter: Trust Team Barry, Part III Redux

Day 113 of CHOPE

It's all about jobs. And Team Barry is hiring!

IT'S A GOOD TIME TO WORK FOR UNCLE SAM

May 12, 2009 (CBS News) - President Obama's call last year for "shared sacrifice" doesn't extend to federal employees, at least based on the details of his administration's 2010 budget released this week.

At a time when the official unemployment rate is nearing double digits, and 6.35 million people are receiving unemployment benefits, the U.S. government is on a hiring binge.

Executive branch employment* -- 1.98 million in 2009,** excluding the Postal Service and the Defense Department -- is set to increase by 15.6 percent for the 2010 fiscal year [308,880 new hires]. Most of that is thanks to the Census Bureau hiring 102,000 temporary workers, but not counting them still yields a net increase of 2 percent in one year.

There's little belt-tightening in evidence in Washington, D.C.: Counting benefits, the average pay per federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year.

That's a princely 4% hike during a recession -- the worse recession ever if you believe Mr. Obama.

Civilian government employees are set to enjoy a 2 percent raise. Not only are private sector workers struggling to keep their jobs, but their earnings are stagnating and pay cuts are no longer uncommon.

We do not begrudge the Federal employees their good fortunes. Lucky them. However, we worry should government itself become a make-work program with governance as a sideline. [Pause.] Though considering the quality of present governance (or this or this or this, just a sampling), we could be persuaded to do away with governance altogether.

And that's why I'm always amused when I hear these criticisms of, oh, Obama wants to grow government. No. I would love a nice, lean portfolio to deal with. But that's not the hand that's been dealt us.

Mr. Obama,
living up to his critics' amusing claims
PRESS CONFERENCE April 29, 2009 (White House)

Are we mistaken, isn't Mr. Obama the dealer now?

CHOPE.

Big government. Big payroll. Big taxes on the way.

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* The nation's biggest employer.

** This 2009 number seems suspect. The Defense Department alone employs some 623,000 people (see Table 1 at link). Added to the above, the total Federal work force (minus the Postal Service) becomes 2,603,000. That's a whopping 47% jump in employment over 2007 federal employment of 1,774,000 (also minus the Postal Service).