From Dennis Cauchon at USA Today, who provides us with the chart.

Federal employees earn higher average salaries than private-sector workers in more than eight out of 10 occupations, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data finds.

Accountants, nurses, chemists, surveyors, cooks, clerks and janitors are among the wide range of jobs that get paid more on average in the federal government than in the private sector.

Overall, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 in 2008 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The average pay for the same mix of jobs in the private sector was $60,046 in 2008, the most recent data available.

Federal union leaders are trying to explain the disparity away by suggesting – as an example – civil engineers who work for the government have a much harder job and therefore they deserve an extra $10,000 per year.

Are they kidding?

This is not what we’ve grown up to believe during the last few decades. In general, we thought the base pay for government workers was less, but benefits were higher so things “balanced out” for the government employees. As a matter of fact, that has been the rallying cry from government unions for years.

“Stop complaining about our benefits! You have to understand, our wages are less than the private sector!”

Well I guess their going to have to rethink that argument.

Hat tip to Big Government for the pointer to USA Today.

Key findings:

• Federal. The federal pay premium cut across all job categories — white-collar, blue-collar, management, professional, technical and low-skill. In all, 180 jobs paid better average salaries in the federal government; 36 paid better in the private sector.
• Private. The private sector paid more on average in a select group of high-skill occupations, including lawyers, veterinarians and airline pilots. The government’s 5,200 computer research scientists made an average of $95,190, about $10,000 less than the average in the corporate world.
• State and local. State government employees had an average salary of $47,231 in 2008, about 5% less than comparable jobs in the private sector. City and county workers earned an average of $43,589, about 2% more than private workers in similar jobs. State and local workers have higher total compensation than private workers when the value of benefits is included.

President Obama and his team, including the vice president spoke at the opening session of the Jobs and Economic Growth Forum in Washington D.C. yesterday.

He’s brilliant I tell you … BRILLIANT!

But I want to be clear — while I believe that government has a critical role in creating the conditions for economic growth, ultimately true economic recovery is only going to come from the private sector.  We don’t have enough public dollars to fill the hole of private dollars that was created as a consequence of the crisis.  It is only when the private sector starts to reinvest again, only when our businesses start hiring again and people start spending again and families start seeing improvement in their own lives again that we’re going to have the kind of economy that we want.  That’s the measure of a real economic recovery.

Even the vice president agreed.

Many different participants are going to — are here, and many different offerings are going to be put forward, many different ideas.  But in the end, the grist is the same:  take the things that we know work, and make them work better and make them work faster.  And all of this can’t be done — I should put it another way:  None of it can be done without your full buy-in and your leadership in the private sector.

In July, Vice President Biden suggested that we – meaning the government I assume since that’s who did all the spending – needed to go out and spend money to keep from going bankrupt.

“And folks look, AARP knows and the people with me here today know, the president knows, and I know, that the status quo is simply not acceptable,” Biden said at the event on Thursday in Alexandria, Va. “It’s totally unacceptable. And it’s completely unsustainable. Even if we wanted to keep it the way we have it now. It can’t do it financially.”

“We’re going to go bankrupt as a nation,” Biden said.

“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’” Biden said. “The answer is yes, that’s what I’m telling you.”

We know what already works. How about this?

1. Make it easier for small businesses and corporations to do business on a day to day basis. Reasonable regulation at the state level and low business taxes.
2. Reduce the tax rate on investment profit to some sort of “crazy” low rate for at least the next five years. Watch money pour into the United States from everywhere.
3. Cut federal programs that are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. If the people want them, let them fund them at the state level, and after the programs are cut, drastically cut the federal income tax. (Yes, this means if you want the services, state and local taxes will go up)

Are any of these ideas on the table?

Hat tip to Jim Hoft over at Gateway Pundit.

Update (Jim): Here’s the relevant portion of the speech. As Steve said, incredible. I am posting it just for the record.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oO_G3ASH58

What makes this admission so amazingly disingenuous is that just moments earlier he whacks companies (again), accusing them of not hiring workers so they can squeeze profits out of the employees they have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV7NfrEpx5w

I could write volumes on this one but how do you lay the recovery at the doorstep of the private sector and then in the same breath (almost literally) take a shot at that same private sector? Clearly business isn’t hiring because a: they are frozen out of fear of more government taxes and employee mandates and b: the economy shows little sign of reviving enough to boost sales sufficiently to warrant new hires. But, that requires a basic understanding of economics and this is the guy who tried to explain the famous “profits/earnings” ratio. I missed that class.

Finally a frustrated Steele blurts out …  “If government jobs could grow he economy George, why don’t we all quit our private jobs and get government jobs.?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIj1FBKthhM

I think that’s the moment the tingle went up George’s leg.