The 1 Percent
2013-08-26 - by
Republican pay policies are the same as Republican economic policies: For the top 1 percent, lobster and champagne! For everybody else, crumbs. Cookie crumbs, I presume.
The N&O reported that DHHS (Department of High High Salaries) “has created new high-salaried positions in its central office this year and is paying some top executives more than their predecessors even as the agency’s full-time payroll and average salary have declined.”
This on top of high, high salaries for campaign aides with negligible health and human services experience.
On top of McCrory, in his first official action as Governor, giving big raises to his Cabinet secretaries.
This is such a wonderful line of attack because it is so simple and people get it so clearly: “Governor McCrory paid two 24-year-old campaign aides more than $85,000 each. But he wouldn’t raise teachers’ pay.”
Now Democrats have called on the Republican legislature to inquire into the raises. If they don’t inquire, Tillis, Berger & Co. are complicit.
The Republican response goes like this: Criticizing these raises for 24-year-olds is age discrimination.
That’s a knee-slapper. But here’s an even better one. A Richard Dietz wrote in the Charlotte Observer: “Alexander Hamilton was in his 20s when he began work on the Federalist Papers. Thomas Jefferson was barely 30 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Ifyoung people can draft the core tenets of American government, surely they can help run a state agency.”
You’ll know the rest of this story if you remember the 1988 Quayle-Bentsen debate. (You kids who don’t know, look it up. You’ll get a kick out of it.)
To paraphrase Senator Bentsen, I know about Hamilton and Jefferson. Hamilton and Jefferson are heroes of mine. Diaz and McKillip are no Hamilton and Jefferson.
The 1 Percent
2013-08-26/
Republican pay policies are the same as Republican economic policies: For the top 1 percent, lobster and champagne! For everybody else, crumbs. Cookie crumbs, I presume.
The N&O reported that DHHS (Department of High High Salaries) “has created new high-salaried positions in its central office this year and is paying some top executives more than their predecessors even as the agency’s full-time payroll and average salary have declined.”
This on top of high, high salaries for campaign aides with negligible health and human services experience.
On top of McCrory, in his first official action as Governor, giving big raises to his Cabinet secretaries.
This is such a wonderful line of attack because it is so simple and people get it so clearly: “Governor McCrory paid two 24-year-old campaign aides more than $85,000 each. But he wouldn’t raise teachers’ pay.”
Now Democrats have called on the Republican legislature to inquire into the raises. If they don’t inquire, Tillis, Berger & Co. are complicit.
The Republican response goes like this: Criticizing these raises for 24-year-olds is age discrimination.
That’s a knee-slapper. But here’s an even better one. A Richard Dietz wrote in the Charlotte Observer: “Alexander Hamilton was in his 20s when he began work on the Federalist Papers. Thomas Jefferson was barely 30 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Ifyoung people can draft the core tenets of American government, surely they can help run a state agency.”
You’ll know the rest of this story if you remember the 1988 Quayle-Bentsen debate. (You kids who don’t know, look it up. You’ll get a kick out of it.)
To paraphrase Senator Bentsen, I know about Hamilton and Jefferson. Hamilton and Jefferson are heroes of mine. Diaz and McKillip are no Hamilton and Jefferson.