For many, if not most American workers the worst part of getting to work is getting to work. That applies whether you work for the government or are a private sector wage slave.

Traffic (unless you are a rural letter carrier in Nebraska), or traffic equipment related-problems, are the problem even if you take the bus or subway. Or dare to bike.

In the Washington area, home to more than 360,000 federal workers, the ever-present burr-on-the-butt is traffic on one of the Potomac River bridges. Or not getting sideswiped or t-boned navigating around a circle honoring some long-gone general or president. Or finding, or defending, a parking space.

In place like Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan (and sometimes in Africa or Mexico) the commute may be shorter. But conditions are much tougher. Sometimes deadly.

Last week was “tough” for us in DC. Many of us were delayed because of motorcades necessitated by an unusually (even for us) high concentration of VIPs. These are people who by election, appointment or birth, are not required to suffer things (like traffic jams) that impact us mere mortals.

They “solve” problems like traffic jams, but never actually encounter them.

One day I (and thousands of other bitter motorists) suffered through and were stalled by a motorcade with 11 motorcycle policemen, three limos, eight black SUVs and three DC police cars. Thanks to the smoked glass on the windows I couldn’t tell who the sheltered VIP was. It was surely a Prime Minister or King (I keep getting those two mixed up) from some country or other here for a tutorial on the evils of them (but not us or Russia, China, France, Great Britain, North Korean, Israel, etc.) owning nuclear weapons.

Even veterans of DC traffic said that day two of the Nuclear Security Conference produced one of those memorable traffic jams. The ripple effect of roadblocks and convoys set up to make like easier for VIPs went well into the deep Maryland and Virginia suburbs.

During our “ordeal” here I got an e-mail from a fed stationed in the middle east. Instead of traffic noise he hears IEDs or sometimes the sound of suicide bombers. Rather than complaining, as I was at the time, about tough working conditions, he was inquiring about changes in the TSP and the impact, if any, of health care reform on the FEHBP.

” We have a saying here (where’s he’s stationed) that during every tour you either become a Hunk, Chunk or a Drunk. Hunks work out all the time because there’s nothing else to do. Chunks eat because there’s nothing else to do and…” well you get the point.

Good times!

He’s a volunteer, gets extra pay and says he and others are doing it to serve their country. Not to get extra pay for risking their lives (mortar attacks are always possible) in theory on a daily basis.

So it’s good to know that Uncle Sam is aware of the sacrifices so many people are making. And that the government and Congress are constantly tweaking the systems to make life a little easier for people who, in some cases, are in harm’s way 24/7. If you are one of them, check out the following changes and updates. And if you aren’t one of them, check them out as I did, from the relative safety of your office in Arlington, San Francisco or Philadelphia and be glad you don’t qualify for any of these “perks.” Click here to read the info from OPM.

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

Nearly Useless Factoid
by Suzanne Kubota

The BookofOdds.com reports that since 2005, “only one home run has surpassed 500 feet: Adam Dunn’s 504-foot bomb off Glendon Rusch on September 27, 2008.”

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