FEDERAL EMPLOYEE UNIONS DEMAND HUUUUGE PAY HIKE: They already make on average 78 percent more than private sector works – counting salary and the value of benefits – but a coalition of federal employee unions claim they deserve a 5.3 percent pay raise, reports Katie Watson of the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group.

“At a time when we need to recruit the best and brightest to civil service, federal pay is falling further behind the private sector and living standards for federal employees and their families continue to decline,” the coalition claims in a letter to Congress. “A catch-up raise to reflect market rates in 2017 is imperative.”

Yes, that’s really what they said.