Beat 'Em? Join 'Em!
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Gary [email protected]
The report showed the budget deficit reached $655 billion through the first five months of fiscal 2010.
At that rate, the annual deficit will be $1.572 trillion.
At the end of the the first five months of 2009, the deficit was a mere $590 billion.
The deficit in February 2010 alone was $223 billion, up $30 billion over February 2009.
There was some bright news: Receipts increased by $16 billion during February compared to 2009.
But the government managed to wipe all that out and then some, spending some $46 billion more in February 2010 than it did in February 2009.
The CBO said the increase in outlays was largely due to President Barack Obama's signature tax credit - Making Work Pay - which goes to low- and middle-income earners.
OK, this is just insane.[[In-content Ad]]I thought it was unimaginable when President George W. Bush ran up a $455 billion deficit during his last year in office. But the current administration is making W look absolutely frugal.
So where are is the government getting this money it's spending?
Well, that would be from China and Japan, mainly.
Interestingly, just last month, Japan surpassed China as the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury securities.
See China has been number one for a long time. But it seems China is getting a little impatient. They tire of our fiscal tomfoolery. They scoff at our fiscal buffoonery.
And the Chinese also are mad that we agreed to sell weapons to Taiwan, so they may sell off some of their U.S. treasury holdings.
News like this shows that China might be getting a little burned out on U.S. Treasuries.
This is not good news.
Remember that $1.5 trillion in debt the government is running up this year? Well, the government is expecting China to step up and buy a bunch of Treasuries to pay for it.
Not only that, the government also sells corporate and mortgage debt to China.
Many very smart economists believe China would never sell off its U.S. treasuries or stop buying more because the two economies need each other so much. If the U.S. economy tanks, so does China's, the logic goes.
Those same economists argue, "Where else could China invest its $300 billion a year revenue surplus?"
Yet dumb Hoosiers and and other largely uneducated people like me have been saying for years that the Treasury bill honeymoon with China couldn't last forever. But what do we know.
If we do enough to make the Chinese mad at us - like Taiwan arms deals and harping on them about civil rights and arguing with them about currency valuations - we might see some selling of treasuries.
And if the dollar ceases to be a good investment, the Chinese might well find a better place to invest its money.
If that happens the economy here surely would suffer - high interest rages, high inflation, overall devaluation of the dollar.
And the sad part is, if the Chinese stop buying our debt - they own 17 percent of it right now - our government really has no Plan B.
But despite all the toils and troubles of the federal government, it's still the place you should go if you need a job.
You know how tough it's been in the job market lately, right? Lots of people out of work with unemployment at 9.7 percent. Lots of companies downsizing and cutting hours, wages and benefits.
Well, not federal government.
USA Today reports that federal employees earn higher average salaries than private-sector workers in more than eight out of 10 occupations.
The newspaper analyzed Federal Bureau of Labor data.
Accountants, nurses, chemists, surveyors, cooks, clerks and janitors are among the wide range of jobs that get paid more on average in the federal government than in the private sector, USA Today notes.
The most recent data is from 2008. Overall, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector. The average pay for the same mix of jobs in the private sector was $60,046 in 2008.
And these numbers don't include benefits like health plans and pensions. Those benefits averaged $40,785 per federal employee in 2008. Compare that to $9,882 per private worker.
It's kind of opposite of what you'd expect. I mean, private-sector workers are the ones paying the taxes that the government uses to pay its workers. And private-sector employers have to endure all the government regulation, bureaucracy and red tape that help drive down wages.
Essentially, government bureaucrats are being paid quite well to help drive down the wages of private sector workers who are paying their salaries.
Meanwhile, amid the precarious economic situation and runaway deficit, one would think federal hiring would be abated.
Not so much.
Here's a tidbit from CBS News:
... The U.S. government is on a hiring binge.
Executive branch employment - 1.98 million in 2009, excluding the Postal Service and the Defense Department - is set to increase by 15.6 percent for the 2010 fiscal year. Most of that is thanks to the Census Bureau hiring 102,000 temporary workers, but not counting them still yields a net increase of 2 percent in one year.
There's little belt-tightening in evidence in Washington, D.C.: Counting benefits, the average pay per federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year.
Some of the Feds' hiring increases have been stunning. If you look at the four-year period from 2006 to 2010, the number of Homeland Security employees has grown by 22 percent, the Justice Department has increased by 15 percent, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can claim 25 percent more employees.
You know, if this wasn't so tragic, it would be comical, but I think I have the answer.
Everybody needs to get a government job.
The report showed the budget deficit reached $655 billion through the first five months of fiscal 2010.
At that rate, the annual deficit will be $1.572 trillion.
At the end of the the first five months of 2009, the deficit was a mere $590 billion.
The deficit in February 2010 alone was $223 billion, up $30 billion over February 2009.
There was some bright news: Receipts increased by $16 billion during February compared to 2009.
But the government managed to wipe all that out and then some, spending some $46 billion more in February 2010 than it did in February 2009.
The CBO said the increase in outlays was largely due to President Barack Obama's signature tax credit - Making Work Pay - which goes to low- and middle-income earners.
OK, this is just insane.[[In-content Ad]]I thought it was unimaginable when President George W. Bush ran up a $455 billion deficit during his last year in office. But the current administration is making W look absolutely frugal.
So where are is the government getting this money it's spending?
Well, that would be from China and Japan, mainly.
Interestingly, just last month, Japan surpassed China as the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury securities.
See China has been number one for a long time. But it seems China is getting a little impatient. They tire of our fiscal tomfoolery. They scoff at our fiscal buffoonery.
And the Chinese also are mad that we agreed to sell weapons to Taiwan, so they may sell off some of their U.S. treasury holdings.
News like this shows that China might be getting a little burned out on U.S. Treasuries.
This is not good news.
Remember that $1.5 trillion in debt the government is running up this year? Well, the government is expecting China to step up and buy a bunch of Treasuries to pay for it.
Not only that, the government also sells corporate and mortgage debt to China.
Many very smart economists believe China would never sell off its U.S. treasuries or stop buying more because the two economies need each other so much. If the U.S. economy tanks, so does China's, the logic goes.
Those same economists argue, "Where else could China invest its $300 billion a year revenue surplus?"
Yet dumb Hoosiers and and other largely uneducated people like me have been saying for years that the Treasury bill honeymoon with China couldn't last forever. But what do we know.
If we do enough to make the Chinese mad at us - like Taiwan arms deals and harping on them about civil rights and arguing with them about currency valuations - we might see some selling of treasuries.
And if the dollar ceases to be a good investment, the Chinese might well find a better place to invest its money.
If that happens the economy here surely would suffer - high interest rages, high inflation, overall devaluation of the dollar.
And the sad part is, if the Chinese stop buying our debt - they own 17 percent of it right now - our government really has no Plan B.
But despite all the toils and troubles of the federal government, it's still the place you should go if you need a job.
You know how tough it's been in the job market lately, right? Lots of people out of work with unemployment at 9.7 percent. Lots of companies downsizing and cutting hours, wages and benefits.
Well, not federal government.
USA Today reports that federal employees earn higher average salaries than private-sector workers in more than eight out of 10 occupations.
The newspaper analyzed Federal Bureau of Labor data.
Accountants, nurses, chemists, surveyors, cooks, clerks and janitors are among the wide range of jobs that get paid more on average in the federal government than in the private sector, USA Today notes.
The most recent data is from 2008. Overall, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector. The average pay for the same mix of jobs in the private sector was $60,046 in 2008.
And these numbers don't include benefits like health plans and pensions. Those benefits averaged $40,785 per federal employee in 2008. Compare that to $9,882 per private worker.
It's kind of opposite of what you'd expect. I mean, private-sector workers are the ones paying the taxes that the government uses to pay its workers. And private-sector employers have to endure all the government regulation, bureaucracy and red tape that help drive down wages.
Essentially, government bureaucrats are being paid quite well to help drive down the wages of private sector workers who are paying their salaries.
Meanwhile, amid the precarious economic situation and runaway deficit, one would think federal hiring would be abated.
Not so much.
Here's a tidbit from CBS News:
... The U.S. government is on a hiring binge.
Executive branch employment - 1.98 million in 2009, excluding the Postal Service and the Defense Department - is set to increase by 15.6 percent for the 2010 fiscal year. Most of that is thanks to the Census Bureau hiring 102,000 temporary workers, but not counting them still yields a net increase of 2 percent in one year.
There's little belt-tightening in evidence in Washington, D.C.: Counting benefits, the average pay per federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year.
Some of the Feds' hiring increases have been stunning. If you look at the four-year period from 2006 to 2010, the number of Homeland Security employees has grown by 22 percent, the Justice Department has increased by 15 percent, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can claim 25 percent more employees.
You know, if this wasn't so tragic, it would be comical, but I think I have the answer.
Everybody needs to get a government job.
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