Posted on 04/08/2011 10:21:23 AM PDT by seanmerc
WASHINGTON — Last time there was a government shutdown, furloughed federal workers were able to recover their lost pay. They may not be so lucky this time.
Congress would have to decide whether an estimated 800,000 government employees could recoup back wages if they are forced to stay out of work. When workers were sidelined during the most recent partial shutdowns of 1995 and 1996, Congress quickly voted to make them whole.
But that was during flush economic times and before Tea Party conservatives wielded influence over GOP lawmakers, seeking smaller government and deeper spending cuts.
"It was a very different economic time back then, and a very different Congress," said Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union. "I think there is such a vocalized hostility by too many in Congress today against the federal work force and federal agencies."
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I was laid off for a year; I feel real sorry for them! if the economy isn’t saved, we all going hungry. Is this sinking in at all on the left? [Rhetorical question]
If they continued to work, then give them their pay. If they sat home on the couch and watched Jerry Springer, then no.
And it's about damn time!!
Perhaps government will be placed in the position of working for the people once again instead of us working for government.
Oh, boo hoo.
Great! This ought to make the state-run media very happy because they are always calling for “shared sacrifice.” It is way past time that the federal fat cats with their life-time benefits start feeling some of the pain of the underemployed and unemployed taxpayers.
And NO reimbursement for work not done during their furloughs this time!
Federal employees who are deemed non-essential won't work during the shutdown, so why should they be paid? For that matter, WHY DO WE HAVE NON-ESSENTIAL FEDERAL EMPLOYEES? "Non-essential" employees should be fired, just as they should be in the private sector. Of course, one could make the argument that most of Congress and the President are non-essential, too.
Payback! At last. They have been hitting my wallet for years.
Tell these parasites to get off our backs, and go get real jobs.
“Gov’t shutdown could hit federal workers in wallet”
So? Someone’s gotta pay for Obama’s vacation to Williamsburg. He works so hard you know. What is this, vacation number 450?
if the economy isn’t saved, we all going hungry.
You haven’t seen anything yet. Wait until Obama and the democrats bankrupt the American Farmer. It will be open season on politicians.
Same here. I was laid off for nearly a year, and essentially forced into a career change. I’m working again now, but at literally ONE FIFTH of what I used to make when I was in IT. My family’s spending has been cut proportionally because, unlike the Federal Government, I can’t print my own money or choose to raise my own credit limit without ever having to think about actually paying back the debt.
Federal workers need a rude awakening.
This from News Max today:
Mike Lee: Obama Plans Shutdown With ‘Malicious’ Intent
Thursday, 07 Apr 2011 05:22 PM
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One the leading tea party voices in Congress is suggesting that President Obama might have begun planning a government shutdown last year with “malicious” intent.
“Why was it that a few months ago . . . when the president had both Houses under the control of his party — why did he opt not to pass a budget for fiscal year 2011?” asked Sen. Mike Lee, who helped found the Senate’s Tea Party Caucus earlier this year, according to The Hill.
“It was either irresponsible on one hand or deliberate and malicious on the other with intention to bring about a sequence of events that would culminate inevitably in a government shutdown,” said Lee, R-Utah.
The spending measure funding the government is set to expire at midnight Friday.
President Obama has threatened to veto a one-week stopgap measure passed by the House Thursday afternoon that includes language that would prohibit the District of Columbia from using local government funds for abortion services.
“The question we have to ask ourselves is: Why does Barack Obama, president of the United States, want a shutdown?” Lee said in his floor speech.
© Newsmax. All rights reserved.
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Since when is hypocrisy a new thing is Washington? That being said, the government workers should absolutely NOT be paid if not working. Do we call this a paid vacation and, if so, they should be pushing for a shut down and vacation. Where is it written that government workers are a protected class? As with the private sector the rule should be; no work, then no pay. And, I agree that neither the president, or the congress, should be paid for any period during the government fiscal year that a budget is not in place, with no retroactive pay. We send them there to do a job, if they don’t do the job, then no pay.
What you said.
When government at all levels confiscates upwards of 40% of my income, my sympathy for these people just went out the window.
Levin is right. Government left to itself naturally spirals out of control toward tyranny.
That's not what "non-essential" means in this case. "Essential" employees, to the federal government, are those who oversee specific responsibilities that absolutely must be maintained without interruption (negative consequences of that job not being covered include damage to life, property, or the security of the US). A "non-essential" employee may be doing serious and important work, but the nature of the work is that a (typically short-term) delay or disruption will not result in severe consequences.
Granted, there are way too many federal employees who don't do anything useful, but don't read too much into the phrase "non-essential".
Glad I retired from the federal government last year!
And also glad that federal pension payments will continue throughout the shutdown (this was confirmed by OPM Director Berry in an interview with the Washington Post yesterday).
On my congressman’s Facebook page, he had a woman ask him not to shut down the FedGov because she and her husband for a contractor and they’d feel the pinch.
Then in the next breath she tells a woman who’s concerned about her small businesses and taxes to PAY HER TAXES and quit trying to get a free ride!
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