Cut the nonsense

By Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (PA) May 30, 2013 10:27 am

(File Photo)

As most Americans began their three-day Memorial Day weekend, the increasingly familiar sequester "misery" index once again "rose" to the public's attention. The word from Washington was that about 115,000 federal workers were being furloughed to meet those dastardly budget cuts.And while the mainstream media sympathetically reported on the plight of those workers, they somehow missed the federal job postings since March: In all, jobs for more than 10,000 people have been posted. Median salary? About $76,000. And a quarter of the advertised positions pay $113,000 or more, according to a Washington Times analysis.

While high-profile jobs directly affecting public services went on the sequester's chopping block, the Defense Department was busy recruiting 71 bartenders and 123 waiters; half of those positions were listed post-sequestration, The Times reports.

And while the Transportation Security Administration warned of widespread flight delays -- that is, before Congress stepped in -- it, too, was listing job openings -- in all, 439 positions since March 4.
"An email from one federal agency indicated that it was intentionally placing the brunt of the cuts on critical and high- profile positions instead of low-priority jobs to lend credence to the dire warnings it had proffered to Congress in a plea for more funding," The Times reports.

Government's dirty little secret is that the 2011 Budget Control Act, which triggered the sequester, is partially responsible "for today's temporary improvement in spending and the deficit," The Heritage Foundation reports. It's time Congress stops the incessant whining and prioritizes the cutting.
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