There he stood – New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio – on the steps of the nation’s Capitol, flanked by the most liberal of liberals, including Al Sharpton and Representatives Raul Grijalva, John Conyers, Barbara Lee and Keith Ellison, all purveyors of the “taker” culture.
By now you have most likely heard about his 13-point Progressive Agenda, his attack on income inequality, recommending what he calls bold steps to make a difference for ”every day Americans.” He jumps from increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, national paid sick leave and paid family leave, universal pre-K and after school programs and childcare, to closing tax loopholes that allow CEOs and hedge fund managers and billionaires to avoid – are you ready for it – “paying their fair share in taxes.”
Flanked by Washington’s purveyors of the “taker” culture, NY City Mayor Bill de Blasio outlines his 13-point Progressive Agenda. (usatoday.com)
He promises there’s more in his agenda, including the expansion of Social Security, debt-free college and investments in schools, not jails.
Ironically, President Obama was speaking at Georgetown University that day saying, “I think the effort to suggest that the poor are sponges, leaches, don’t want to work, are lazy, undeserving, got traction.”
He went on to say, “there has been an effort to either make folks mad at the folks at the top or to be mad at the folks on the bottom.” He should look in the mirror, because he has been most guilty of this divisiveness. Then there’s Hillary Clinton, who has been promoting this with her claim that “the deck is stacked in favor of those already at the top,” and her attack on CEO pay
There’s more irony. It‘s In Washington DC that federal employees make $14, 632 more in direct cash income than their private sector counterpart – $74, 436 versus $59,804, thanks to we taxpayers. And extremely generous benefits boost the average federal employee salary to $114, 436 compared to average private sector salary of $87,804.
Federal pay raises result from legislated increases in general pay, increases in locality pay, benefits and the growth in the number of high-paid jobs as the bureaucracy grows. Federal workers are a powerful special-interest group. A recent CATO report pointed out that while certain positions deserve to be paid handsomely, public relations specialists and economists in the Department of Agriculture were being paid $136,000 and $184,000, respectively.
Finally, in case you hadn’t heard, federal employees and retirees owe $3.5 billion in unpaid back taxes and there is little or no effort to collect them.
Enough.
