GOOD NEWS! THE ECONOMY IS STILL FINE FOR THOSE WHO LIVE OFF TAXES:

While the private sector was shedding millions of jobs in 2008 and government budgets were collapsing under the weight of waste, fraud and carved-in-stone personnel costs, the public sector had another banner year. Governments at all levels hired 164,100 new employees and were largely responsible for the addition of a further 96,600 jobs in education and 371,600 in health care. Now President-elect Obama wants to add 600,000 to the bloated federal payroll. Untold thousands more local, county and state employees will be needed to fill all the new and bigger public facilities built with stimulus cash. As it is, nearly 15 percent of the civilian work force draws government paychecks.

Meaning that Democrats only have to compete for the other 85%. Speaking of Democrats, I love this bit:

Sen. Dodd still has a job, and his recent $4,100 raise will make it easier to afford those sweetheart mortgages he got from Countrywide Financial.

Heh.