Harry Reid Says Government Jobs Take Priority

Just What We Need - Bigger Government



By Dell Hill

Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, says our primary focus should be on improving public sector jobs.  Public sector jobs are the very thing that make “big government” big government!

Free Republic covered Reid's remarks on the Senate floor.

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday said Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs, and that this is why Senate Democrats are pushing a bill aimed at shoring up teachers and first-responders.

"It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers, and that's what this legislation is all about," Reid said on the Senate floor.

Reid was responding to recent comments from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who accused Democrats of purposefully pursuing higher taxes as part of the teacher/first-responder bill, S. 1723, so that Republicans would oppose it.  McConnell said the bill was meant to fail in order to give Democrats an issue to run on in the 2012 election, but Reid said the Republicans are simply trying to defeat President Obama any way they can.

The legislation Reid is defending is part of Obama's jobs package.  Vice President Biden was in Pennsylvania, an important election state, on Tuesday to push for the administration's plan on increasing the number of teachers.”

Meanwhile, Politico reports that Washington, D.C. - which isn’t even a state in this union - has vaulted past Silicon Valley California as the wealthiest metro area in the country.

“Washington, D.C., is now the country’s wealthiest metro area, replacing Silicon Valley in the top slot, according to new data from the Census Bureau.
                                     
The average household income for residents of the Washington metro area was $84,523 in 2010, when the nation’s median household income was $50,046, Bloomberg reported in an analysis of census data.

According to the new data, — Bloomberg reports that San Jose had an average income of $83,944 in 2010, dropping from $84,483 in 2009.  The average household income for Washington last year also fell from 2009, when the average was $85,168.

Federal workers last year had average total compensation of $126,369, representing an increase from $122,697 in 2009.  As of June, the Washington metro area had 170,467 federal employees, according to the analysis.”

Read the entire report from Politico by clicking here.