Government bureaucrats are living the good life. Salaries and benefits are 30 percent to 40 percent higher for federal workers than their private-sector counterparts. They enjoy great benefits, such as early retirement with generous pensions. And now, the rest of America is starting to take notice.

This week on Scribecast, we spoke to Iain Murray, vice president for strategy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He’s the author of a new book called “Stealing You Blind: How Government Fat Cats Are Getting Rich Off of You” (Regnery, 256 pages). It documents how public-sector workers are turning government into a bloated bureaucracy that’s fueling reckless spending and driving America deeper into debt.

Listen to our interview with Iain Murray on this week’s Scribecast

We asked Murray about his experience in the British government and if there’s any hope for a Margaret Thatcher-like effort to transform the U.S. government. He would start by returning more power to the 50 states, creating less dependance on a centralized government. He’d also change the mindset of federal workers that bigger is not always better.

Murray will join us for The Bloggers Briefing next week at Heritage. Watch the briefing live at noon Tuesday on Ustream.tv or listen on BlogTalkRadio.

The podcast runs about 15 minutes. It was produced by Hannah Sternberg. Click here for previous episodes of Scribecast.