Dagpotter

Federal Spending Continues to Drastically Outpace Median Income Growth

Even adjusted for inflation which this does not seem to do you would find a similar discrepancy. Respirate, as Sheldon says, you cannot argue with basic mathematics. Look draw your own conclusion from the divergence and you are certainly welcome too. Maybe it is a good thing, we'll find out I guess, but Mr. Broower is right that the money has to come from somewhere and those making over $250 K have only so much.

U.S. Economy Looks Ready to Bounce

Nice thoughts, but I see the economy continuing to decline for a great deal longer. You are also wrong about the Iraq war. It did stimulate the economy by creating a great deal of high paying jobs that allow those holding them to spend on consumer goods. Come to a city like Huntsville, AL a child of the defense budget and see houses costing more then most of Alabama, a lot of nice cars and big screen televisions. Per capita income is much higher then the rest of the state outside of Birmingham and Montgomery or South Tennessee.

Could We See the De Facto Nationalization of Government IT Contractors?

Interesting article, as a defense contractor for seventeen years and a manger I have to agree. Building loyalty to a company is very hard when every five to ten years the people might just switch to another. Converting contractors to employees has happened in the past and this would just be on a much larger scale. There are issues of course with some of the workforce as they might be retired military or civil servants who would lose out financially if they were converted. The key line in your article is "at comparable pay and benefits". Arguments about who costs more will always continue but Mr. Gates has obviously decided that in favor of the civil service. It will be interesting to see how all this goes.