Economic Charts

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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Expansion of Government Spending

USA today had an article today entitled "More Fed Workers pay tops $150K" where Dennis Cauchon points out that Government worker pay has increased 10 fold (doing the math it is more) in the past 5 years, with a majority occurring under the current administration.  Table 1 shows a breakdown of the increase in the number of persons receiving a particular pay category.

SalaryGrowth
$150,00090%
$160,00093%
$170,00095%
$180,00095%
Table 1

President Obama plans on giving government workers a pay 1.4% pay raise across the board, which is up for debate in the lame duck session. This type of inflation in pay is another reason for continuing growth in our federal budget deficit each year, which will inherently cause rising taxes (we may avert them next year, but the bill will come due one way or another some day).  Not to say government workers do not deserve a pay raise (moderate, not 90+%), but not of this magnitude and during a recession.   I would certainly understand a portion of this going to our military who protect and serve, but that does not seem be where this money went to.   We are going to have to get our government spending under control, as expansion in federal spending will inherently mean more printing (devaluation) of dollars and/or increased taxes (and nobody wants that) to cover the check.  This is just a small example where spending has moved into an unrealistic figures.

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