The Washington Times published an editorial last Friday, criticizing this

year's pay raise for federal employees as well as hiring bonuses and other

compensation incentives offered during a recession.

The href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/12/federal-bonus-bonanza/"

target=_blank>Times article, headlined "Federal bonus bonanza," opened

with: "[t]he only thing that seems to be growing during the current economic

downturn is the government, and that's cause for alarm. While families and

businesses struggle to make ends meet, the ranks of federal workers swell -- as

does their compensation. It's time for the feds to start making the same

financial sacrifices as the rest of us."

But just hours later, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management

(OPM), John Berry, fired back regarding the Times editorial during an href="http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=19&sid=1911018"

target=_blank>interview with FederalNewsRadio.com.

Berry pointed out, "[t]he first line in the [Times] editorial says that the

federal government is growing during this [economic] downturn and it's a cause

for alarm. . . . That's what the editorial says, here are the facts. There will

be 2.1 million full time federal employees in this year. That is less than there

were in the federal government when Lyndon Johnson was president in 1967. If you

compare the growth in the size of our country, there are over 100 million more

Americans today that those workers are serving."

FederalNewsRadio.com also noted that Berry said he is extremely upset about a

part of the article that implied that federal employees do little other than sit

at their desks all day.