Comments about ‘Nelson Mandela would be appalled at the U.S.'s spend-o-rama’

Why did Federal employees income increase?

#1 Pay hikes. Then-president Bush recommended – and Congress approved – across-the-board raises of 3% in January 2008 and 3.9% in January 2009. President Obama has recommended 2% pay raises in January 2010, the smallest since 1975. Most federal workers also get longevity pay hikes – called steps – that average 1.5% per year.

#2New pay system. Congress created a new National Security Pay Scale for the Defense Department to reward merit, in addition to the across-the-board increases. The merit raises, which started in January 2008, were larger than expected and rewarded high-ranking employees. In October, Congress voted to end the new pay scale by 2012.

#3 Paycaps eased. Many top civil servants are prohibited from making more than an agency's leader. But if Congress lifts the boss' salary, others get raises, too. When the Federal Aviation Administration chief's salary rose, nearly 1,700 employees' had their salaries lifted above $170,000, too. (reported in USA Today)

As long as the american people support politicians who spend us into a never ending debt we have no body but ourselves to blame. Both parties are guilty and we who support our legislators are as guilty.

It is time for the american People to stand up and demand fisical responability in government spending in congress or do what the Delcaration of Independence says "whenever government becomes destructive, it is the right of the people to qlter or to abolish it." That means to vote oout those who continue to vote unconstitutionaly and replace them with good honest people - not party stooges.

The public will be outraged at this spending. Right up until Britney Spears does something outrageous again. Or when American Idol starts up. Or happens. We just don't have the attention span anymore.

I hope to be proven wrong. Guess hope is all I've got at this point.

The typical conservative lies and evasions are immediately apparent in this article. When considering the pay of government employees, one must compare it with that in private business. Legislators are actually sacrificing pay to be in government service. If you want to attract competent people you have to pay them salaries comparable to those in business. We do want competent people, right?

What is newsworthy about this story? Is it that "trillion" is the new "billion?" No, we've been hearing such gigantic figures for years. Is it that members of Congress each strive mightily to bring back to their state much more of the federal tax take (from others' contributions) than they sent in the first place (leading to ever-increasing budget deficits)? No, that's what senior senators like Byrd and Stevens have bragged about for years, and why W.Virginia and Alaska keep sending these multi-decade veterans back to D.C. to get more. Is it that the party in the majority distributes money in a very unequal fashion? That shouldn't shock anyone, at this point.

So what is the real news here? It is that these people in Congress have been behaving childishly, irresponsibly - even criminally, in some instances - quite long enough to develop a terrible reputation, and yet the voters from their districts and states keep sending them back to do more damage to our country!

"Our problem is not that we have a corrupt government. Our problem is that we, as a people, have become corrupt, and we have the government we deserve."

Problem with this piece is that it dutifully starts out in an early paragraph blaming the spending mess on George Bush and then in an act of stupidity that doesn't belong in the article lumped in Karl Rowe who has been an Obama critic.
These Scripps-Howard people seem to be part of a new and twisted pretzelized news society.

This editorial points out lots of facts and makes numerous complaints, but not one suggested solution. If you're going to complain about a problem, at least have a possible solution. It is always easy to complain.

compassion for those who struggle we need stimulus & healthcare reform bills. Yeah and who is showing compassion for our childrens' future that has been so lavishly spent?
Wake up now America or else we'll find ourselves being called The United States of The Peoples' Republic of China!

Mandela and the U.S. budget? This is an absurd premise.

This is the silliest column i've read all year.

I wonder how much of this problem could be solved by term limits. It seems to me like the longer a person serves in congress, the more he or she gets involved in special interest groups who lobby for earmarks. I think the longer they are there, the more they lose sight of what their constituents want.

I wonder what Gary Crowton would do with the US Budget?

Or Jerry Sloan with the military?

How about Betty Crocker for Sec. of State?

I wonder what all these people would do?

What does Mandela have to do with the US again? What a silly article.

The average wage of a Federal worker [2 million of them} including benefits is $119,000. That of a private worker half if you have a job. Moreover as has been pointed out many are getting raises. Federal workers think the economy is doing great. Mr. Obama has a "demand" economy. Keynsian means spend money as fast as you can. This does not work. Throw the rascals out.