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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (43856)	6/20/2010 4:49:11 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 71588

Near-Record 49% Say Democrat Party "Too Liberal" June 14, 2010 More Americans than in 2009 say Republican Party's views are about rightby Jeffrey M. JonesPRINCETON, NJ -- In the past two years, Americans have become increasingly likely to describe the Democrat Party's views as "too liberal" (49%), and less likely to say its views are "about right" (38%). Americans' views of the Republican Party, on the other hand, have moderated slightly, with a dip in the percentage saying the GOP is too conservative from 43% last year to 40% today, and an increase in the percentage saying it is about right, from 34% to 41%. The recent increase in perceptions of the Democrat Party as too liberal could be a response to the expansion in government spending since President Barack Obama took office, most notably regarding the economic stimulus and healthcare legislation. The 49% of Americans who now believe the Democrat Party's views are too liberal is one percentage point below the 50% Gallup measured after the 1994 elections, the all-time high in the trend question first asked in 1992. Since February 2008, the percentage calling the Democrat Party "too liberal" has increased by 12 points among independents and 8 points among Republicans, with little change among Democrats. While significantly more Americans now view the Democrat Party as "too liberal" than "about right," the net result of the changes in Americans' perceptions of the Republican Party is that now about as many Americans say the GOP is "about right" as say it is "too conservative." Even so, the percentage saying the Republican Party is too conservative remains near the upper range of what Gallup has measured since 1992. Bottom Line In their efforts to attract widespread voter support in general elections, parties and their candidates generally want to avoid being perceived as too ideologically extreme. Indeed, a common strategy in U.S. electoral politics is for Republican candidates to try to paint their Democrat opponents as too far left, and Democrat candidates to try to convince voters that their Republican opponents are too far right. Currently, by 49% to 40%, more Americans perceive the Democrat Party as too liberal than say the Republican Party is too conservative, giving the Republicans an advantage in an important election year. With Election Day more than four months away, however, the Democrat Party has an opportunity in the 2010 campaign to try to alter voters' perceptions of the party's ideology. gallup.com

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (43856)	6/21/2010 8:30:09 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Bonus bonanza for federal workers Examiner Editorial June 16, 2010 President Obama, shown surrounded by White House aides, instituted a pay freeze for top aides. He’s done little to control government pay beyond this symbolic gesture. (Pete Souza/AP, The White House ) Under the Obama administration, the government is doing such a good job that it's decided to reward itself. Last year, Uncle Sam paid out $408 million in bonuses to 1.3 million federal workers, according to the Asbury Park Press, which obtained the information through a Freedom of Information Act request. That's about $80 million more than the previous year. About one in four federal workers received a bonus, and awards ranged from $25 to, in the case of one lucky State Department worker, $94,500. That $408 million figure only counts bonuses that were handed out to about 65 percent of the federal work force. The FOI request didn't cover awards handed out by the Defense and Treasury departments, security agencies, the White House, Congress and various other federal agencies and commissions. In 2008, the last year information was available, the Department of Defense alone handed out $92 million in bonuses to its 687,000 employees. Federal bonuses are being doled out liberally, even as federal salaries are exploding. From December 2007 through June 2009, the number of federal workers earning six figures increased from 14 to 19 percent. In 2008, average federal compensation, including pay and benefits, was $119,982 -- considerably more than the $59,909 average in the private sector, according to the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the midst of a brutal economic downturn that saw millions of jobs lost and unemployment soar above 10 percent, the Office of Personnel Management data shows the federal workforce actually added nearly 100,000 jobs from December 2008 to December 2009. In theory, introduction of bonuses and pay-for-performance measures in the federal workforce was a positive reform. However, this boom in federal bonuses suggests an "all carrot and no stick" approach to federal performance. For bureaucrats, job security is a non-issue, and they already earn twice as much as an average American just for showing up to work. Shortly after he assumed office last year, Obama instituted a pay freeze for top White House Aides earning more than $100,000, saying this would "restore that faith in government without which we cannot deliver the changes we were sent here to make." The president made it clear that he knows egregious federal salaries are a problem, yet he's done little beyond this symbolic gesture to address the problem. Actually doing something to rein in the runaway federal bureaucracy would be change taxpayers can believe in. washingtonexaminer.com