Government Pay exceeds Private Sector Pay

According to a USA Today report federal workers earned an average of$67,691 in 2008 compared to $60,046 average pay for the same mix of jobs in the private sector. According to a Washington Times report there will be 2.15 million federal employees this year. topping the 2 million mark for the first time since President Clinton declared that "the era of big government is over".

So let's break this down. We've got more federal workers than ever and they make a lot more than their private sector counterparts. This at a time when everyone else is tightening their belts and cutting back. Does anyone else see the sad irony of this?

What does Thomas Jefferson have to say on the matter? "Let the general government [federal government] be reduced to foreign concerns only, and let our nations affairs be disentangled from those of other nations, except to commerce, which the merchants will manage the better, the more they are left to manage for themselves, and our general government may be reduced to a very simple organization, and a very inexpensive one; a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants" (Bergh, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 10:168)