OT: FAA blows 5mil taxpayer $$$ on xmas party.

[learlove]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/party-time-faa-critics-question-million-gathering/story?id=9390933

hope the wife of the FAA guy who was trying to pick up the hooker doesn't see this.

[avalonracing]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/party-time-faa-critics-question-million-gathering/story?id=9390933

hope the wife of the FAA guy who was trying to pick up the hooker doesn't see this.


I don't think it was a hooker. I think it was just a guy being improper with one of the video bloggers sent to all but entrap them. My guess is that they have cute girls with hidden cameras flirting with these lonely guess and getting them to talk about what fun they are to be with at these parties.

Big money is wasted every day by government agencies and public and private industry. It sucks that we need single out a couple while 99% goes unchecked.

[Ahneida Ride]

Dallas Fed reserve Chairman estimated that the true national debt
exceeds 100 trillion (and that was before the bailouts).

That estimate does not include personal or corporate debt.

Have a nice day! :)

[djg]

Geeze, at our agency they send a couple of folks to Costco for a few trays and the rest is pot-luck.

[93legendti]

Compared to the salaries of the FAA employees (1,700 make over $170,000/year!) and the raises fed employees got this year, $5 million is, sadly, chump change.

The raises and salaries are hard to jutify during the recession-you'd think someone smart would recommend cuts, rather raises.

As stated below, Obama pays very well-with our tax dollars.

For feds, more get 6-figure salaries
Average pay $30,000 over private sector
By Dennis Cauchon
USA TODAY

The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.

The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available.

When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.

The trend to six-figure salaries is occurring throughout the federal government, in agencies big and small, high-tech and low-tech. The primary cause: substantial pay raises and new salary rules.

...Jessica Klement, government affairs director for the Federal Managers Association, says the federal workforce is highly paid because the government employs skilled people such as scientists, physicians and lawyers. She says federal employees make 26% less than private workers for comparable jobs.

USA TODAY analyzed the Office of Personnel Management's database that tracks salaries of more than 2 million federal workers. Excluded from OPM's data: the White House, Congress, the Postal Service, intelligence agencies and uniformed military personnel.

The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker's pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.
Key reasons for the boom in six-figure salaries:
...

•Pay caps eased. Many top civil servants are prohibited from making more than an agency's leader. But if Congress lifts the boss' salary, others get raises, too. When the Federal Aviation Administration chief's salary rose, nearly 1,700 employees' had their salaries lifted above $170,000, too.

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20091211/1afedpay11_st.art.htm?loc=interstitialskip

[gemship]

I don't think it was a hooker. I think it was just a guy being improper with one of the video bloggers sent to all but entrap them. My guess is that they have cute girls with hidden cameras flirting with these lonely guess and getting them to talk about what fun they are to be with at these parties.

Big money is wasted every day by government agencies and public and private industry. It sucks that we need single out a couple while 99% goes unchecked.


Did you watch the video? The ABC news reporter openly stated that the "hooker" was working for them undercover. Entrap? the old man's response was rude as in insinuating that she was a hooker and whipping out his wallet, hey nobody forced him to say a stupid think like that. He's supposed to be professional at his work related conference :rolleyes: This was a excellent expose by ABC news and yes you're right there must be much more waste by the government that goes by the wayside but it's this kind of vigilance that is required to buff up America.

[torquer]

The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker's pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.

Statistics provided by the Bureau of Apples and Oranges, no doubt.

Federal workers tend to be administrators and technicians (USPS and military were excluded from survey), so education levels are much higher compared to general population.

Government workers are also older, on average, than general workforce. (This observation based on my experience with NYS government, but I suspect it holds for other levels as well.)

And finally, public-sector unionization is far greater than in private industry. (I'm sure this point will stir the pot with some of this crowd, but it is a major factor.)

I don't know who makes $170K at the FAA, but I'd much rather have a flight traffic controller at that pay level than one getting minimum wage (after coming off the overnight shift restocking shelves at Walmart).

And if I spent the day in meetings amongst nothing but civil-servants (in Atlanta, to boot) I'd be ready for a couple drinks, too.

[Bruce K]

While this conversation is staying nice for now, we all know where these go.

We just got through expressing the fact that we want to limit OT threads.

Sorry, guys but This one is going to be a non-starter.

Happy Holidays and NEw Year.

BK