A new in-depth database of federal worker salaries shows the government paid out a whopping $105 billion in salaries last year for most of its civilian workforce — to boot, the workers got $439 million in bonuses.
The information, which was obtained and number-crunched by The Asbury Park Press through a Freedom of Information Act request, challenges the old notion that government workers trade high salaries for job security and benefits.
In fact, many workers get all those things.
“They get better pay and they especially get better benefits,” said James Sherk, senior policy analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The database, which is now online, allows users to enter a federal worker’s name and their department, and then look up their salary information. The trove covers about 70 percent of federal workers, with some eye-opening results.
“I don’t usually admire Sarah Palin,” Chomsky said, “but when she was making fun of this ‘hopey changey stuff,’ she was right, there was nothing there.”
The liberal tilt of America’s top colleges and universities has gone off the charts with the ratio of liberal-to-conservative commencement speakers reaching 7-1, an all-time high, according to a new survey of graduation ceremonies at the top 100 schools.
“It was particularly awful this year,” said Ron Meyer of the Young America’s Foundation, which conducted the survey. “The ratio has never been this bad.”
According to the conservative youth group, of the top 100 universities in the latest U.S. News rankings, 71 featured liberal speakers while 10 hosted conservatives. And of the top 35 schools, only one asked a conservative to speak. Emory College, ranked 20th in the nation, had Obamacare foe Benjamin Carson give the commencement.
Sixteen Obama officials will speak, more than the total number of conservatives, and conservative journalists were shut out while 11 liberal and mainstream reporters, anchors and commentators were given the spotlight including Barbara Walters, Cokie Roberts, Katie Couric, Soledad O’Brien, Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams.
A previous YAF survey found that Bush administration officials spoke at the top 100 schools a total of 14 times, and he served eight years. In President Obama’s first three years, officials have spoken 29 times.
The NBC Investigative Unit has raised questions about two grants totaling nearly $1.5 million dollars distributed to the University of California San Francisco. The money was part of the federal stimulus program and went to studies into the erectile dysfunction of overweight middle aged men and the accurate reporting of someone’s sexual history.
The Investigative Unit looked closely at the federal government’s decision to spend nearly $1.5 million dollars of taxpayer money, money that came to California. Grant number 1R01HD056950-01A2 was among the thousands of grants funded, receiving $1.2 million dollars. This grant studied how to improve the accuracy of how people responded to questions about their sexual history.
“If you honestly report on your sexual activity and number of partners?” Scott Amey with asked with a sigh. “That’s a good one.”
A Catholic university in Ohio said Tuesday it is being forced to end a student health insurance program over the Obama administration’s contraception mandate and costs associated with other provisions of the health care overhaul.
Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, said it has so far excluded contraceptive services and products from its health insurance policy for students and will not participate in a plan that “requires us to violate the consistent teachings of the Catholic Church on the sacredness of human life.”
In its decision to drop coverage, the school cited the contraception mandate, but also a requirement that the maximum coverage amount be increased to $100,000 for policyholders — claiming that would have made premiums skyrocket. A university official told Fox News Radio the students’ basic $600 policy was going to double in cost in the fall and triple next year and that the school’s insurance provider said the increases were the result of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
“If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” – Malcolm X
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