Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) believes government bureaucrats have answered a higher calling than people who work in the private sector.

Speaking to the Legislative Conference of the National Treasury Employees Union on February 4th Cummings said, “so many people come to government knowing that they are not going to make the kind of money they would make in the private sector but they come to government to feed their souls.”

CNS News caught the comments on video and has more details on the event: 

“People do not seem to understand that so many people come to government knowing that they are not going to make the kind of money that they would make in the private sector but they come to government to feed their souls,” Cummings told the audience.

The Maryland Democrat also told union members that getting federal workers a raise higher than the one proposed in President Obama’s budget is among his priorities.

“So what are my priorities? What’s my reason for being here?” Cummings said. “My ardent priority is to do whatever I can to help federal workers obtain fair compensation and meaningful pay raises.”

“President Obama’s budget for the next year recommends a 1.3% pay raise for federal employees I believe this is to low. I love the president but I believe this is far too low, far too low.”

Since Cummings made the remarks to the National Treasury Employees Union, it may be instructive to examine exactly what these government union members do to "feed their souls" at taxpayers' expense. 

The union represents IRS employees. The people charged with collecting your taxes and auditing your returns. The employees who allegedly used political motives to withhold non-profit status to conservative groups. 

Those are the government bureaucrats Cummings believes are "feeding their soul" by cashing their taxpayer-funded paychecks.