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tazzygirl -> RE: Playing loose with facts AGAIN??? (8/17/2011 9:00:22 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Aylee
quote:
ORIGINAL: flcouple2009
I guess the commandment about not bearing false witness doesn't apply in her version of Christianity.
She was under oath?
I thought that the point of her statement was the 1 versus 1,690 employees making 170k+.
It was... check when that occurred.
Bachmann wrongly blamed President Obama for increasing the number of federal transportation workers who earn more than $170,000 from one to 1,690 during the recession. At least two-thirds of those employees were receiving more than $170,000 before Obama took office.
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According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. As of September 2007, three months before the recession started, only one DOT employee — the Secretary of Transportation — made more than $170,000, according to an online database maintained by the Office of Personnel Management. By June 2009, when the bureau declared the recession had ended, there were 1,690 employees in the Department of Transportation making more than $170,000 a year.
So, Bachmann's figures check out. But is this an example of Obama failing to cut spending? Hardly. OPM's database also shows that 1,122 of the 1,690 DOT employees cited by Bachmann were earning more than $170,000 in pay as of September 2008 — nine months into the recession — while President George W. Bush was still in office. OPM's next data set isn't until March 2009 and, by that time, Obama had been in office for less than three months. By March 2009, the DOT was paying 1,686 of its employees more than $170,000. That's nearly all of the 1,690 DOT employees she cites as earning more than $170,000 by the end of the recession.
OPM's online database provides annual salary figures up until 2008 and quarterly figures beginning in March 2009, so we were unable to determine precisely how many of the 1,690 DOT workers saw their pay top $170,000 under Bush and how many did so under Obama. OPM and DOT declined to provide more information. But this much is clear: At least two-thirds of the DOT employees who broke the $170,000 pay barrier did so under Bush. It's probably higher than that, though, because Bush in 2008 signed into law a bill that gave federal workers a 3.9 percent across-the-board pay increase, effective Jan. 1, 2009. (Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009.) That pay increase would have been reflected in the March 2009 data. We are not looking to blame Bush for rising federal pay. In fact, the Republican president in 2008 sought a 2.9 percent raise for civilian federal workers and 3.4 percent pay hike for military workers, but the Democratic-controlled Congress succeeded in getting a larger pay increase, a 3.9 percent across-the-board pay hike, signed into law. Our interest here is purely whether Obama can be blamed for the spike in DOT employees earning more than $170,0000 during the recession.
Since becoming president, Obama has taken steps to slow federal pay. He recommended a 2 percent pay increase for the fiscal year 2010. Under normal circumstances, the increase would be 2.4 percent based on the Employment Cost Index, which measures salaries of non-federal workers. However, citing "serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare," Obama implemented the "alternative pay plan."
In November 2010, Obama proposed a two-year civilian federal pay freeze for fiscal years 2011 and 2012. This is reflected in the General Schedule Salary Table for 2011, which froze rates at the 2010 levels.
http://www.factcheck.org/2011/06/bachmanns-waterloo/
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