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Obama: '20,000 Government Workers Screw Up Daily'

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During a recent public lecture in Minneapolis, Minnesota, President Barack Obama was asked to speculate on the future of public sector workers in light of recent government scandals. Katie Peterson, a 29-year employee of the Defense Contract Management Agency, confronted the president asking:

Katie Peterson: "There's been a few rough patches with three years of pay freeze and sequestration and furloughs. And we're just kind of wondering what you foresee for the next fiscal year for government workers."

Obama, clearly astonished at the impertinence of Katie's challenge, smiled. Then calmly - as a father might to a child's inquiry regarding the origin of babies - answered:

Barack Obama: "Well, let me make a couple of points. First of all, folks in the federal
government, the overwhelming majority, they work really hard doing really important stuff. And I don't know why it is that—(applause)—I don't know when it was that somehow working for government—whether the state or local or federal level—somehow became not a real job. When you listen to some of the Republican rhetoric sometimes you think, well, this is really important work that we depend on."


Katie Peterson: "But...the next fiscal year? What about the..."

Barack Obama: "...historically, it's been the private sector that drove the economy, but it was also a whole bunch of really great work done by agricultural extension workers and engineers at NASA and researchers at our labs that helped to create the platform and the wealth that we enjoy. And so this whole idea that somehow government is the enemy or the problem is just not true. Now, are there programs that the government does that are a waste of money or aren't working as well as they should be? Of course. But I tell you, if you work in any company in America, big company, you'll find some things that they're doing that aren't all that efficient either."

Katie Peterson: "I know, but..."

Barack Obama:"Are there some federal workers who do bone-headed things? Absolutely. I remember the first week I was on the job I talked to my Defense Secretary, Bob Gates, who's older and had been there a long time. I said, do you have advice for me, Bob? He says, one thing you should know, Mr. President, is that at any given moment, on any given day, somebody in the federal government is screwing up. (Laughter.) Which is true, because there are 2 million employees. Somebody out there—if 99 percent of the folks are doing the right thing and only 1 percent aren't, that's still a lot of people." **

Katie Peterson: "But...but..."

**(~20,000)



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Yes, government workers wake up every day with eagerness to do something useful for the people, but it's just so hard to start on something you've never done before...


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My Our Entire Kollecktiv is Very Disturbed that Our Obammunist Master is bowing down, and there is nary A Middle-Eastern Oil-Sheik / 3rd-World Tinpot Dictator in view. (Our Kollecktiv Concern is: Has this posture become a "Shameful Habit" of Our Heroic Glorious Intelligent-Beyond-Belief Obammunist Master?) If so, are we all supposed to Bow In Total Obedience to... Whatever?

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Apparatchik Unkulturny wrote:My Our Entire Kollecktiv is Very Disturbed that Our Obammunist Master is bowing down, and there is nary A Middle-Eastern Oil-Sheik / 3rd-World Tinpot Dictator in view. (Our Kollecktiv Concern is: Has this posture become a "Shameful Habit" of Our Heroic Glorious Intelligent-Beyond-Belief Obammunist Master?) If so, are we all supposed to Bow In Total Obedience to... Whatever?
Perhaps he is not bowing but mooning?

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RedDiaperette wrote:
Apparatchik Unkulturny wrote:My Our Entire Kollecktiv is Very Disturbed that Our Obammunist Master is bowing down, and there is nary A Middle-Eastern Oil-Sheik / 3rd-World Tinpot Dictator in view. (Our Kollecktiv Concern is: Has this posture become a "Shameful Habit" of Our Heroic Glorious Intelligent-Beyond-Belief Obammunist Master?) If so, are we all supposed to Bow In Total Obedience to... Whatever?
Perhaps he is not bowing but mooning?
The woman behind him doesn't seem impressed.

Battlebot Potemkin wrote:
RedDiaperette wrote:
Apparatchik Unkulturny wrote:My Our Entire Kollecktiv is Very Disturbed that Our Obammunist Master is bowing down, and there is nary A Middle-Eastern Oil-Sheik / 3rd-World Tinpot Dictator in view. (Our Kollecktiv Concern is: Has this posture become a "Shameful Habit" of Our Heroic Glorious Intelligent-Beyond-Belief Obammunist Master?) If so, are we all supposed to Bow In Total Obedience to... Whatever?
Perhaps he is not bowing but mooning?
The woman behind him doesn't seem impressed.

Woman?...isn't that Eric Holder?....um, if one squints their eyes, and looks at a slight angle it kinda looks like there is a woman back there....


 
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