It's Federal 'Fat Cats' Obama Should Go After
Dusty
December 17, 2009
It's Federal 'Fat Cats' Obama Should Go After
By Dan Gainor
The press helped promote President Obama's attacks on "fat cat bankers,"
while federal employees earn 76 percent more than private sector.
In "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," author Robert Kiyosaki explained the different
views of wealth that poor and rich people have. Kiyosaki showed readers how
to learn from those opposite outlooks and be successful.
President Barack Obama must be vying to write the latest sequel. Only, Obama
wants to turn things upside down. People who make money in the private
sector now are evil. Obama made big headlines recently calling out "fat cat
bankers on Wall Street." The only people who are good in Obamaland are
government employees.
And they aren't just doing good, they are doing well. Really well. According
to an excellent report by USA Today, "federal employees making salaries of
$100,000 or more jumped from 14 percent to 19 percent of civil servants
during the recession's first 18 months - and that's before overtime pay and
bonuses are counted."
For you statistics wonks out there, that's an increase of more than a third.
USA Today's report went on to show how out of whack federal pay is when
compared to what everyone else earns.
"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," it reported
Dec. 10. That means the "average" federal worker earns more than $30,000
above a private sector counterpart - enough to buy a government-approved
Toyota Prius and have plenty left over.
So naturally Obama is reining in federal salaries and going after waste in
the system like he's always talking about with health care. Right?
Not a chance. The president knows government workers rely on more government
and that makes them a core constituency of the Democratic Party. So he
instead attacks Wall Street and evil bankers - "banksters" as lefties like
to call them.
Obama went after the banks in that recent "60 Minutes" appearance. "They're
still puzzled why is it that people are mad at the banks?" he asked. "Well,
let's see. You know you guys are drawing down ten-, twenty million-dollar
bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it's gone
through in - in decades. And you guys caused the problem and we got ten
percent unemployment. Why do you think people might be a little frustrated?"
The media just loved Obama describing "fat cat bankers." His quote made it
everywhere in mainstream news and even on "The Daily Show." It was a
carefully designed P.R. move to boost Obama's newly flagging numbers with a
little old-fashioned class warfare.
Even Cokie Roberts told NPR's "Morning Edition" audience Dec. 14 that "the
president also needs a little shoring up with his own liberal base after his
decision to add more troops to Afghanistan and the continued economic bad
times. So, going after the banks is a good way to sort of rev up his popular
supporters."
This is the perennial theme for both Democrats and journalists - businessmen
are evil. Everybody else - from the homeless to government employees - must
then be good by comparison.
And while it's news, it's certainly not new. CNN's foot-in-the-mouth anchor
Rick Sanchez railed on businesspeople back in an Oct. 23, "Campbell Brown"
appearance. "This week, the president of the United States went after the
fat cats on Wall Street, limiting their bonuses and cutting their pay by as
much as 90 percent in some cases."
ABC's Terry Moran went even further during a "Nightline" segment in
September. The anchor's report was titled "Is Capitalism Evil?" and featured
lefty filmmaking propagandist Michael Moore. Moran did as journalists often
do and turned to the movie "Wall Street" to describe the industry by the
same name. "Well, remember Gordon Gekko, the fictional fat cat who famously
said, 'greed is good?" Now let's hear from a real life rabble-rouser who's
got exactly the opposite message about capitalism."
That mixture of populist rhetoric has policy impact. The White House
approach is that other well- paid people must suffer. Obama's pay czar
Kenneth Feinberg has been coming down hard "on pay packages at four
companies rescued with taxpayer money," according to ABC.
The media and the administration are doing their best to spread that lack of
wealth throughout top jobs around the nation. And they're doing nothing to
rein in the huge pay hikes in government service.
Ironically, Reuters reported that the IRS has hired "hundreds" of people "to
catch rich tax cheats." Perhaps Obama could spend some time introducing the
new IRS workers to their compatriots in other departments - like
Transportation. As USA Today explained, "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."
Isn't it great when government creates wealth with our tax dollars?
Dänk 1010011010
> http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/12/17/dan-gainor-obama-fat-cats-b...
>
> December 17, 2009
>
> It's Federal 'Fat Cats' Obama Should Go After
> By Dan Gainor
>
> The press helped promote President Obama's attacks on "fat cat bankers,"
> while federal employees earn 76 percent more than private sector.
But we already know why Chairman Obama won't go after overpaid federal
employees: unlike greedy bankers who tend to vote Republican, federal
employee unions are loyal supporters of the Democrat party, and will
contribute a portion of the excessive salaries to the Chairman's re-
election campaign in 2012.
Jerry Okamura
the private sector, who is paying them? If there were no private sector
workers, where would they get their taxes from to feed the beast?
"Dusty" <No....@home.org> wrote in message
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