Do we really need more government employees?

By Tom Quiner

The tension between private and public employees just won’t go away.

A new Rasmussen Poll reveals that 61% of private workers believe government workers make more money than their private counterparts. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or Democrat. The poll finds rare agreement on this belief between parties.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office confirms this view. A CBO study shows that federal workers, for example, enjoy 48% more benefits than workers in the private sector.

The Cato Institute studied the matter and discovered that the average civilian federal government worker earned about $84,000 a year in taxpayer money, or $32,000 more than the average private sector worker.

The Rasmussen Poll goes farther. Sixty-eight of American adults believe that private sector employees work harder than federal employees.

These findings are important.

They come at a time when government data reveals the breathtaking expansion of the federal workforce under the Obama administration, 143,000 in all, or 101 new federal employees per day, everyday.

They come at a time when President Obama is insisting on a tax hike on America’s most-productive small business owners earning over $250,000 per year. These are the people creating jobs. The president wants to take more money from these super job creators and redistribute it to federal employees who already have better benefits than the private sector, according to the CBO.

This redistribution scheme ultimately comes at the expense of private sector employees, whose employers will have less money in the coffers to provide raises for their workers.

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The Obama years have produced a whole new dynamic when it comes to the way we view the economy.

Team Obama sees two economies that compete with each other: the public economy vs. the private economy.

The public economy, which is funded by taxpayers, has historically been viewed as the servant of the private economy. No longer.

The president makes it clear to entrepreneurs, innovators, and small business owners that they “did not build” their businesses or invent their inventions by themselves. They need to give equal credit to the public economy.

The patent office deserves just as much credit as Edison for inventing the light bulb, goes the thinking.

As Mr. Obama tends to do, he pits groups against each other, in this case, successful small business owners against the bureaucrats. He makes clear his desire to redistribute resources from those who earned it in the private economy to the public economy, which votes largely for his party. As Obama said to Joe the Plumber, he wants to”spread the wealth around” as long as it runs through the public economy over which he yields great influence.

The Obama viewpoint embraces the moral efficacy of government at the same time it disparages the greed and callousness of the private economy.

The public economy: good.

The private economy: bad.

Historically, the best and the brightest have gravitated to the private sector where their talents would be rewarded. That has changed. Most people will fare better in a government job financially than in the private sector unless they have a professional degree or a doctorate.

The Obama philosophy of a dominant public economy is producing some of the best and brightest well-paid bureaucrats the world has ever seen, ninety percent of whom vote Democrat.

For the record, I know many government workers at all levels doing exceptional work for taxpayers. I find no fault with them and commend them for their dedication.

I’m concerned, though, that our system is out of balance to the detriment of millions of America’s private sector workers.

The public economy is winning.

The president needs to explain how we can afford so many new government workers in light of an already over-extended budget.

How can we justify siphoning off more money from job creators and giving it to a man who is using if for what  appears to be political patronage?

Do we really need more government employees?

No.