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Since our ugly economic maelstrom begun, the companies responsible for shedding the largest numbers of workers have the highest-paid CEOs at their helms. Clearly, there's something wrong with this picture. This unpleasant finding headlined the Institute for Policy Studies' (IPS) report, CEO Pay and the Great Recession. Shareholders need to think about whether incentivizing management brutality is really the best path toward bettering corporations' long-term prospects. When leaders aren't heroes The IPS report shows that corporate America's "layoff leaders" are making out like bandits. CEOs who presided over the worst mass layoffs earned almost $12 million on average last year,...

As a retired federal government employee, I’m offended when I hear Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and a host of other conservative talk show hosts bash all levels of government employees. It seems the all-time favorite government employee to bash works for the Department of Motor Vehicles. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, federal government employees in 2008 earn an average of $67,691 compared to $60,046 in the private sector. This doesn’t count the benefits all federal government employees enjoy. Not all federal government employees make as much as their private sector counterparts, but many do. For example, a registered...

Federal workers have become a new flashpoint in the fight between Republicans and Democrats on the economy. House GOP Leader John Boehner (Ohio) this week blamed Democratic policies for exacerbating a gap in the pay between public and private workers that he claims was rising even as the country suffers through a housing crisis and high unemployment. House and Senate Republicans already have offered legislation to freeze the salaries of the 2 million federal employees through amendments to economic stimulus bills being ushered through Congress by Democrats. Each effort has failed due to opposition from Democrats.

Outside a hotel ballroom near Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport airport, about three dozen men and a handful of women lined up one recent morning to get a colored dot - green, blue or red - affixed to their suits and dresses. The colors were key to what's known as the "meal ticket" for getting a job in the intelligence community: a top-secret clearance.

Private employees toil 13½ months to earn what federal workers do in 12. Pay cuts, layoffs and the highest unemployment rates in decades have reignited a debate over the relative treatment of public and private workers. USA Today reported in March that federal workers earn substantially higher wages than private sector employees who work the same types of jobs.White House budget chief Peter Orszag responded that these pay differences merely reflect the superior skills of federal workers, not government largess. Adjusting for education and experience, he said, federal workers make about the same salaries as private workers.

Illinois State Treasurer and candidate for U.S. Senate Alexi Giannoulias did not have to pay his state and federal taxes this year due to losses incurred from the failure of his Broadway Bank. Giannoulias' campaign released his financial information on Friday. Giannoulias is set to receive $30,000 in tax refunds because of his bank's failure. The Treasurer has said that all of that money is going to be donated to charity. The Broadway Bank had been largely forgotten in the race for U.S. Senator, but the release of Giannoulias' financial records seems to have dredged it up once more. Giannoulias...

"A state appellate court ruled in Schwarzenegger's favor Friday, but the state controller, who issues state paychecks, says he can't comply. One reason given by Controller John Chiang, a Democrat elected in 2006: The state's computer system can't handle the technological challenge of restating paychecks to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour."

http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-labor-secretary-promises-help-for-illegal-aliens-in-psa/

The White House ordered BP to pay for construction of five more large sections of Louisiana barrier island sand berms Wednesday as efforts to contain the gushing Deepwater Horizon oil spill hit more obstacles and the slick approached Florida. Speaking from the coastal town of Venice, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said he had just heard from the White House that BP would be required to pay for the work. Although the projects had already passed expedited environmental approval, the administration also needed to determine whether the work would actually stop oil from entering the marshlands. "There is no time...

At a recent rally where school employees called for an increase in state taxes, a representative of the Warren Education Association claimed that school revenues were in such disrepair that some students had to go without desks. A spokesperson from Warren Consolidated Schools denied this claim, but even if it were true, a few very minor policy changes well short of tax hikes would be all that is necessary to pay for many new desks. According the the Warren district's collective bargaining agreement with teachers, the president of the local teachers union is paid the highest possible salary the contract...

The Duchess of York has held secret talks with Princess Diana's lawyers about renegotiating her 'paltry' divorce settlement with Prince Andrew. Sarah Ferguson consulted Anthony Julius at Mishcon de Reya, who famously negotiated a £17million pay off for Princess Diana when she divorced Prince Charles. The figure is in stark contrast to the £15,000 a year which the duchess receives from Prince Andrew after their marriage ended after ten years in 1996.

"The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." - Margaret Thatcher Private pay shrinks to historic lowsPaychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds. At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010. Those records reflect a long-term trend accelerated by the recession and the federal stimulus program to counteract the...

With Michigan's economy in decline and families departing the state in increasing numbers, tax revenues that pay for our public schools are falling. Because employee compensation costs consume around 80 percent of most school districts' operating budgets, and also include unsustainable retirement benefit provisions, the Legislature is considering proposals to reduce these expenses. Notwithstanding fiscal and economic realities, the Michigan Education Association, the state's largest school employee union, has pulled out all the stops in its efforts to shut down any reforms in this area. One of the union's tools is a claim that school employees have already made "$1...

Lawmakers disregarded Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's calls for fiscal restraint Wednesday, approving a military pay raise higher than President Obama and the Pentagon requested. The House Armed Services personnel subcommittee approved a 1.9 percent pay bump for uniformed military personnel, half of a percentage point higher than suggested in Obama's fiscal 2011 budget. The markup also increased hostile-fire pay and family separation allowances. "This raise will further reduce the gap between military and private-sector pay raises," said subcommittee chairman Susan A. Davis (D-Calif.). But the raise is in direct disagreement with the wishes of Gates, who plans to push...

President Barack Obama — who came to power with the help of government employee unions across the nation and has lavished on them hundreds of billions in stimulus funds to keep them on federal, state and local payrolls with no strings attached — is moving to cut spending on salaries for military personnel. This weekend The Washington Post headlined story, "Pentagon Asking Congress to Hold Back on Generous Increases in Troop Pay,” disclosed that the Obama administration is “pleading” with Congress to give military personnel a much smaller increase in pay than lawmakers have proposed. The Pentagon contends that Congress...