Federal Employees Rake it in, Poor Families Not so Much

You know I'm all for weening people off the government teat, especially if government gets out of the way of the private sector and let them innovate and create jobs.
There will always be the poor among us and with a healthy economy very few have a problem with giving them a hand through limited government assistance and charitable giving.
But in this economy there is just something unsettling about these 2 stories.

Federal workers raking in millions in bonuses, new database shows

Not bad for government work.
A new in-depth database of federal worker salaries shows the government paid out a whopping $105 billion in salaries last year for most of its civilian workforce -- to boot, the workers got $439 million in bonuses.
The information, which was obtained and number-crunched by The Asbury Park Press through a Freedom of Information Act request, challenges the old notion that government workers trade high salaries for job security and benefits.
In fact, many workers get all those things.
"They get better pay and they especially get better benefits," said James Sherk, senior policy analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The database, which is now online, allows users to enter a federal worker's name and their department, and then look up their salary information. The trove covers about 70 percent of federal workers, with some eye-opening results.
The average salary, for instance, for New Jersey's federal employees was $83,749. Many senior executives throughout the federal government make a six-figure salary.
Attorney General Eric Holder makes $199,700 - like other Cabinet-level officials. And Jeff Neely, the suspended General Services Administration employee at the heart of the Las Vegas convention scandal, was pulling in $172,000.
The database also shows the government has been liberally handing out bonuses, with many in the ten-of-thousands-of-dollars range. The top bonus in the Justice Department was $37,505.
In the Agriculture Department, it was $62,895. Some of the biggest bonuses, though, were the product of a special presidential award program.

Not really to surprising from an overgrown, bloated, pompous bureaucracy run by professional elitist unions who's sole purpose is to milk the taxpayers dry in exchange for slipshod service to the people who pay their salaries.

But this next story set me back a little bit.

22 Million Children Could Be Left Without Food Stamps Due to Budget Cuts

Some 22 million children who depend on the federal nutrition assistance program that replaced food stamps could lose their benefits under a 2013 budget resolution recently approved by the House Agricultural Committee. The budget, approved in April, would cut more than $33 billion over the next 10 years from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Approximately one third of the proposed cuts are directed at “categorical eligibility” restrictions that could leave as many as two million people per year ineligible for SNAP benefits. The proposed bill would also eliminate more than 250,000 children from automatic enrollment in the Free School Lunch and Breakfast Program. Their benefits could vanish as early as this year if the budget is passed.
According to Center for American Progress data, the proposed budget could end up affecting as many as 46 million Americans. Families of four currently enrolled in the SNAP program could lose about 11 percent of their total monthly benefits.

OK, so we're hemorrhaging money in this country, the deficit is frightening and leaving our childrens children in debt throughout their entire lives and I understand that we have to start tightening our belts somewhere.
But come on, why is it that government workers get a windfall while everyone else is expected to suck it up and sacrifice for the common good?

There's a class war going on alright, the government against the rest of America, we need to vote all the dems and squishy republicans out of office and get back to some sanity.
If belt tightening is required then it needs to start with government workers first then the rest of the way down. Being a federal employee shouldn't make you immune from the bad decisions of your bosses, and there's no doubt we made a bad decision when Obama was voted into office.