In all the back and forth about who is responsible for the “unsustainable”, in the words of Douglas Elmendorf, Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Federal deficits, much blame is assigned to the Bush Administration as well as the current occupant of the White House. While the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush administration cannot be denied I have a more pertinent question for the current administration based on the following two facts as reported by USA Today:
Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available.
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.
Who is responsible for this and who is even attempting to justify this in the midst of the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression?
As a civil-service DoD engineer who does NOT make >$170k/YEAR, or even >$150K/year, I find this increase in the number of high-level bureaucrats to be both appalling and indefensible.
I make quite decent good money, and have solid job security.
I cannot help but feel just a little-built guilty about my comfortable situation in life, when I know friends and colleagues in industry who are struggling (and sometimes failing) to maintain or retain their positions in the private sector.
Home run! Great slgguign with that answer!