Sequester Be Damned! Fed Govt. Posts 27,000 Job Openings (Many Unnecessary!)

Guess that sequester isn't as bad as they thought.  The Washington Times is reporting that the federal government is trying to fill about 27,000 Jobs. Which wouldn't be such a bad thing if at the same time the President wasn't trying to punish Americans for the sequester by releasing illegal aliens from jail and putting them on the street, cancelling White House tours, furloughing key personnel such as secret service, ICE agents, and for a while air traffic controllers. 

The median salary for these positions are $76K (not including those rich federal benefits) and about one out of four of these jobs pay a minimum of $113K according to the Washington Times analysis.

What make this "hiring surge" even more ridiculous is that many of these jobs are unnecessary especially in these times when the Government is cutting back (and should cut back more) and has existing employees taking a salary hit via furlough.

Looking for places to cut the defense budget here are some:

• The Defense Department is recruiting 71 bartenders and 123 waiters. If they worked full-time, these employees would earn more than $3.4 million a year. Nearly half of these positions were first posted after sequestration kicked in.

• Nearly 200 positions related to Army-run bowling alleys are open.

• "Golf, horseback riding, swimming, bowling, arts & crafts, and sport shooting are just some of things our employees call a job!" say some advertisements for positions open to U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike. One position in Hawaii pays up to $110,000 — plus a 12 percent cost-of-living adjustment — to oversee such recreation facilities.

In February, Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, wrote to the Office of Management and Budget to point out that "at the same time the administration is warning sequestration could force laying off or furloughing U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, Defense civilian employees, or food safety inspectors, the federal government is also soliciting applicants for numerous lower priority jobs."'

Mr. Coburn pointed to positions including "a counsel for the Morris K. Udall Scholarship Foundation, salary range from $130,000 to $155,000 per year," as examples of what could be eliminated to allow the required cuts to be as painless as possible.

Mo Udall had a great sense of humor, however I doubt he would find that expenditure very funny.

The Food and Drug Administration is hiring more than 100 people. The Department of Energy is hiring a communications specialist paying from $124,000 to $156,000.

Depending on the level of communications specialist hired, that salary range is way high.  The real question is why DOE needs another "PR" person? Shouldn't that be the role of the private sector?

That's not to say all 27,000 jobs aren't needed, perhaps the majority of them are necessary. For example in Omaha, Neb.,  Veterans Affairs is looking for 12 nurse anesthetists who would make between $126,000 and $198,000 according to the Times that salary is reasonable for this in- demand specialty.

Yesterday Gallup published a poll showing that 54% of Americans say the federal government today has too much power.  This large list of jobs out for filling is just one more brick in the people's dissatisfaction with federal government power:

The question the public would like answers to is "why aren't the various federal agencies looking at each one of these jobs and deciding whether it is necessary for them to be filled?" And not just because of the sequester but because this country is facing a national debt nearing $17,000,000,000,000.