A federal budget of $3.4 trillion, a deficit of around $1.85 trillion over the next 10 years, even postage stamps are going up, and this wonderful tidbit from CBS News:
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.
So presumably, part of that huge budget will go towards paying federal workers more. And according to FederalJobs.net, Uncle Sam employs 2.7 million workers. So if my logic (and math) works right, then businesses–that employ people to create wealth for society–and individuals–who buy products, save money that banks can lend, and are the reason for having a country–are being taxed roughly $6.8 billion to increase the pay of bureaucrats.
Sure, that’s just $22 bucks a person. Sure, cost of living adjustments are normal. Sure its just a 4% bump. But a brief query: at a time when spending is out of control, Americans are having to take pay cuts to keep their jobs, unemployment is on the rise, and private bonuses of $165 million cause conniption fits… the government is raising the pay of its workers? Why doesn’t government feel the need to trim its expenditures like every other American family?
In other terms, $6.8 billion given to businesses at tax cuts could in theory create 136,000 jobs with compensation of $50,000. Or an infinite number of other scenarios. The point being, there are much larger positive effects from our money than using it to bump federal salaries.