Government Employees Equal Financial Drain

It is no secret that the American economy is in a recession. It is also no secret that the federal government as well as almost all state and local governments are in terrible financial shape. We read almost daily of the huge debt our nation owes other countries, particularly Communist China, and of the new government debt being continuosly incurred.

This government spending is out of control and one of the reasons is that the American government, that is state, federal and local units, employ some 20,000,000 people.

The 20,000,000 figure is bad enough but surveys have also shown that these government workers are hourly compensated at a rate which is greater than private workers in the same labor sector. The most recent reported wage comparison shows that government workers receive, on an average, $39.50 per hour while private workers receive $26.90 per hour. This report also listed government labor unions as contributing to the problem by requiring excess staffing and unaffordable benefits and generous, unaffordable pensions.

This pension issue has become so extreme that at least three states (New York, California and Michigan) have indicated that in 2011 they will seek financial assistance from the Obama Administration to fund the ever growing cost of current, not to mention future, state pensions.

There are solutions but none are comfortable.

The complete program of government employee retirement has to be reworked to require pension funding by a combination of social security and 401K type accounts. Regular tax payers need relief from being made to fund the retirement plans of government workers.

It may be necessary to freeze current pension payments and stop augmenting them with cost-of-living increases. A real possibility exists that a percentage decrease in the current retirement benefits of 10% may have to be mandated.

However, the most obvious solution to these financial problems is to curtail new hirings and reduce drastically the number of government employees.

We all well realize that Obama will never do anything to aggravate any potential voter so the debt of the federal government will continue to grow to cover government salaries and government pensions. This conclusion may not be the same for state and local governments in that each of us has greater control over these public servants.

Only a conservative President who holds the overall interests of the nation above all other concerns can solve this and other government monetary issues. November 2010 and November 2012 cannot come fast enough.