The Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards put together a remarkable (and depressing) chart showing that federal bureaucrats get almost twice the level of compensation as workers in the productive sector of the economy. Defenders of the bureaucracy (including a federal pay panel dominated by bureaucrats) claim that government employees actually are underpaid because…well…just because. My modest […]

Hopefully we’re all disgusted when insiders rig the system to rip off taxpayers. And I suspect you’re not surprised to know that the worst examples come from California, which is in a race with Illinois to see which state can become the Greece of America. Well, the Golden State has a new über-bureaucrat. Here are […]

Since I’ve been in Washington from more than 25 years, it takes something really remarkable to shock me. But when I read today that federal bureaucrats are supposedly underpaid, notwithstanding all the evidence to the contrary, I thought somebody had sent me an article from the Onion. But then I saw that the assertion of […]

I’ve certainly complained about Obamacare from a fiscal perspective, warning that it means higher taxes and more spending. And I’ve also warned that it will make our health care system less efficient and could lead to some of the horrifying examples of rationing and poor care that you find in the United Kingdom (scroll to […]

What Do Greece, the United States, and the Cayman Islands Have in Common? At first, this seems like a trick question. After all, the Cayman Islands are a fiscal paradise, with no personal income tax, no corporate income tax, no capital gains tax, and no death tax. By contrast, Greece is a bankrupt, high-tax welfare […]

I’ve almost exhausted my interest in California’s suicidal fiscal policy. How many times, after all, can you write about politicians over-taxing and over-spending to the point of economic ruin? But everyone has a cross to bear in life, and (if you allow me to mix my metaphors) griping about bloated government is my Sisyphean task. […]

Back in February, I posted this startling map showing that 10 of America’s 15-richest counties are the bedroom communities surrounding Washington, DC. There’s a lot of money in Washington because federal bureaucrats are wildly overpaid, as I document in this video, and also because there is a huge shadow workforce of contractors, consultants, and lobbyists […]

Government bureaucrats are significantly overpaid compared to folks in the productive sector of the economy. So you would think I’d support cuts, especially the kind that get rid of excess blubber in the government workforce. But not when it means higher costs for taxpayers, and that’s exactly what’s happening in New York, where Buffalo taxpayers […]

I’ve reported some horror stories about bureaucrats ripping off taxpayers with lavish compensation packages, including: The chief bureaucrat of a low-income California city getting almost $800,000 per year. Cops in Oakland getting average compensation of $188,000. A Philadelphia bureaucrat, after working only 2-1/2 years, nailing down a guaranteed pension of $50,000 per year. A New […]

Is it April Fool’s Day? Has somebody in Paris hacked the website at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development? Have we been transported to a parallel dimension where up is down and black is white? Please forgive all these questions. I’m trying to figure out why any organization – even a leftist bureaucracy such […]