Cyprus can't happen HERE, huh? (Guess what? Big Barry wants your 401K.) | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Brant Clifton brings the Cyprus Banking Crisis all back home in his "bare knuckles" Conservative online publication known as The Daily Haymaker.

    If you have been following things in the mainstream media, you may have heard something about Cyprus and its banks (slipped somewhere in between stories about Justin Bieber and Beyoncé). Basically, a percentage of all bank deposits are being confiscated by the government to pay back a bailout from the EU.

    An awful lot of Americans likely cannot even find Cyprus on a map of the world. But average Americans need to pay close attention to what's happening there.

    Big Barry has been slaving - oops, racially insensitive? -- away at his crib at 1600 Penn on a budget which is expected to be debuted publicly next week:

    President Obama's budget, to be released next week, will limit how much wealthy individuals - like Mitt Romney - can keep in IRAs and other retirement accounts.

    The proposal would save around $9 billion over a decade, a senior administration official said, while also bringing more fairness to the tax code.

    The senior administration official said that wealthy taxpayers can currently "accumulate many millions of dollars in these accounts, substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving."

    So, faceless DC bureaucrats believe it is their charge to determine how much is reasonable for you to have in your bank account for retirement ?? Paging Mr. Orwell! Mr. GEORGE Orwell ...

    Remember when they told us in 2008 and 2012 that only "the wealthy" would be paying more out of pocket during The Big Barry Era of Enlightenment and Prosperity™ ? An awful lot of working people -- nowhere near Mitt Romney's tax bracket -- have been noticing that guy FICA and his friends taking more money out of their paychecks.

    If this proposal sees the light of day in Washington, it sets a dangerous precedent. What's to stop the government from deciding that your checking account is too big? We have had an agreement with Washington that we could set aside pre-tax funds in accounts to be tapped when we hit our golden years. Now, they're changing the rules.

    DC thinks they know how much we "reasonably" need to have in the bank. While folks who have worked hard and made good money in the private sector are being beaten up, not a whole lot is being said about the salaries being racked up by DC politicos and bureaucrats. A web site called Legistorm provides great information on salaries in the federal government's legislative branch.

    Let's take congresswoman Renee Ellmers's staff, for instance. (The salary amounts in the linked page are for a three-month period in 2012 -- NOT a full year.) Al Lytton -- Renee's chief of staff -- pulled in $33,875 between 10/1 and 12/31. That's $135,500 per year. (Ellmers was first sworn into office in January 2011.)

    For a frame of reference, NC Governor Pat McCrory makes $139,590 per year. Lt. Governor Dan Forest makes $123,198 per year. Ellmers -- Lytton's boss, elected by the people - pulls in $174,000 per year. In 2011, North Carolina's median income was $43,916.

    Since DC is so interested in "fairness" - will we see some chipping away at these congressional staffer salaries? (I won't hold my breath.)

    After all, how "fair" is it that Al Lytton -- a young man not too far removed from his undergraduate years in college -- makes, as a government employee, THREE TIMES the median income of our fair state? That money is not being made producing a good or service that people willingly pay for. Lytton's salary is based on revenue forcibly confiscated from us every April 15.

    Is it "right" to pay him more than the Lt. Governor and almost as much as the governor? Ellmers, McCrory and Forest are accountable to voters. Staffers like Lytton and other bureaucrats are not.

    Don't get me wrong. I am all for making a lot of money. But I resent government bureaucrats attacking people in the private sector for making good money while pulling down HUGE salaries that they, themselves, could likely NEVER draw in the private sector.