Oh! Me name is McNamara,
I’m the leader of the band.
Although we’re few in numbers
We’re the finest in the land.
We play at wakes and weddings
And at ev’ry fancy ball,
And when we play to funerals
We play the march from Saul.

Oh! The drums go bang,
And the cymbals clang,
And the horns they blaze away;
McCarthy pumps the old bassoon
While I the pipes do play;
And Hennessey Tennessee tootles the flute,
And the music is somethin’ grand;
A credit to old Ireland is McNamara’s band.

Oh! My name is Uncle Yulius and
From Sweden have I come,
To play with McNamara’s band
And bear the big bass drum,
And when I march along the street
The ladies think I’m grand
They shout “There’s Uncle Yulius
Playing with an Irish band”

Oh! I wear a bunch of shamrocks
And a uniform of green,
And I’m the funniest looking Swede
That you have ever seen.
There’s O’Briens and Ryans
And Sheehans and Meehans
They come from Ireland, but by Yimminy
I’m the only Swede in McNamara’s band.

Oh! The drums go bang,
And the cymbals clang,
And the horns they blaze away;
McCarthy pumps the old bassoon
While I the pipes do play;
And Hennessey Tennessee tootles the flute,
And the music is somethin’ grand;
A credit to old Ireland is McNamara’s band.

http://candicemiller.house.gov/pdf/hr3200.pdf

Have a great St. Patrick’s Day!

The recession and the ongoing jobless recovery devastated much of the private-sector work force last year, sending unemployment soaring, but government workers emerged essentially unscathed, according to data released Wednesday by the Labor Department.

Meanwhile, the compensation for state and local government employees continued to easily outdistance the wages and benefits for workers in private business, a separate Labor Department report showed.

Private-industry employers spent an average of $27.42 per hour worked for total employee compensation in December, while total compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $39.60 per hour.

The average government wage and salary per hour of $26.11 was 35 percent higher than the average wage and salary of $19.41 per hour in the private sector. But the percentage difference in benefits was much higher. Benefits for state and local workers averaged $13.49 per hour, nearly 70 percent higher than the $8 per hour in benefits paid by private businesses.

Paul Booth, executive assistant to the president at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), attributed the pay difference to a changing government work force that has increased its proportion of higher-skilled workers during the past 15 to 20 years.

“In government payrolls, you no longer have low-wage occupations, such as janitors, whose jobs have been contracted out to the private sector,” he said. This trend has effectively increased the average wage of those higher-skilled workers who remain, said Mr. Booth, whose union represents 1.6 million workers.

Small-government advocates see it differently.

Compensation for government workers “is a gigantic problem” that will only get worse in future years, said Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, which advocates less government and lower taxes.

“The defined-benefit pension plans for state and local workers and their post-retirement health care costs do not include the extent to which those benefits are underfunded or overpromised,” Mr. Edwards said.

The cost of today’s benefits for government employees ($13.49 per hour) assumes that these retirement benefits are fully funded. However, Mr. Edwards estimated that the benefits are underfunded by $3 trillion

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011312719_spending11m.html