Nice to see there’s one segment of the workforce not suffering in this prolonged recession. Too bad the sector in question involves controlling the lives of Americans and creating more red tape.

Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector, according to a USA Today analysis of federal data.

Federal employees making $100,000 or more jumped from 14 percent to 19 percent during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted…

When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.

Almost 1,700 employees at the Department of Transportation rake in $170,000 per year. That’s more than 3 times the average American income, if I remember correctly.

Meanwhile, the number of federal employees earning more than $150,000 per year has doubled in the same period of time. Those making over $100,000 have increased by about 46%.

We’re putting ourselves and many future descendants into an unimaginable amount of debt.

And for what? So the federal government can exert more control over our lives? So Washington can decide what light bulbs we can use, which insurance policies we need to purchase, and what the private sector can pay its employees?

The same people who screech over high salaries at insurance companies and other private institutions are increasing the salaries for federal workers by leaps and bounds. It’s disgusting.