U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) administrator Daniel M. Tangherlini, �serves a vital role in President Obama�s agenda to build a more sustainable, responsible and effective government for the American people.� He has his work cut out for him. Federal workers are paid about twice as much as workers in the private sector, but at…
Read More »
In “Bad Rap: Video Spoof Amplifies Agency Ill” (Wall Street Journal), Peter Landers reports that in a rap video produced by a Government Service Agency (GSA) employee, he fantasizes about being a GSA Commissioner and spending lavish amounts of taxpayers� dollars with no accountability. For the video, he won a GSA contest, which was…
Read More »
In a new article for the Wall Street Journal, “We’ve Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers,” Stephen Moore discusses that “More Americans work for the government than in manufacturing, farming, fishing, forestry, mining and utilities combined.” If you want to understand better why so many states�from New York to Wisconsin to California�are teetering…
Read More »
In “State workers’ unused paid time means big payouts,” Marisa Lagos reports in the San Francisco Chronicle that while California has been facing a financial crisis with record deficits and high unemployment, many state government employees are receiving half-million dollar payments for amassed sick days upon leaving or retirement: One public employee received a…
Read More »
Today, President Obama announced that his administration would freeze the pay of federal employees at their current level for two years.� Well, that’s a start, if the following chart from Political Calculations showing the relative pay and benefits of federal workers with respect to the average income earner in the private sector is any…
Read More »
The New York Times has a wonderful tool for understanding how the recommendations of the presidential deficit commission could work to close the estimated annual budget shortfalls in the future. You simply go through and select spending cuts and tax increases until the budget shortfall is corrected for both in the present and future….
Read More »
In an incisive, recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Sara Murray reports that: “Efforts to tame America’s ballooning budget deficit could soon confront a daunting reality: Nearly half of all Americans live in a household in which someone receives government benefits, more than at any time in history. “At the same time, the…
Read More »
In her September 4th article in the Wall Street Journal, “How Government Unions Became so Powerful,” Amity Shlaes traces how federal protectionism, collective bargaining, and striking powers for public-sector unions have created government labor monopolies for which private workers are forced to pay ever higher taxes for generous pensions and other benefits: “This weekend…
Read More »