Posted on 12/30/2012 10:27:43 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
WASHINGTON—The Pentagon is preparing to notify its entire civilian workforce to prepare for furloughs if Congress and President Barack Obama are unable to reach a deal before Jan. 2 to avert automatic spending cuts.
A senior defense official said Sunday that the Pentagon would notify 800,000 civilian workers to brace for furloughs in the new year, meaning the workers would be ordered to take mandatory leave without pay for a certain period. The warning is much gloomier than the agency recently offered employees, as it had said there wouldn't be an immediate impact on personnel or operations if a deal wasn't reached by January
The automatic spending cuts were put in place by the 2011 Budget Control Act and require $110 billion in spending reductions, split between defense programs and other domestic agencies. The cuts must take place in the first nine months of 2013, and then $110 billion in cuts will take place for eight additional years, under the conditions of the 2011 law. Democrats and Republicans have been working to replace or postpone the cuts but they have been unable to reach an agreement.
The Pentagon will be forced to cut $55 billion in spending in the first nine months of 2013, a roughly 10% reduction in many of its programs. The cuts would affect more than just the agency's workforce, as the White House has said the military's budgets for purchasing aircraft, ammunition, missiles and other items will be cut sharply.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
More unemployed (mostly) white guys...what could go wrong?
Call Congress (202-224-2131)
They are making a cliff out of a molehill. It is high time to go over it and a whole lot more. Bring it on.
Welcome to ObaMurica
Make no mistake, 0bama is looking to further weaken our military to reduce our influence on the world stage. It’s all about destroying our superpower status. 0bama is on a kill mission, domestically and abroad. He’s bolstering those aligned with him domestically (unions and federal agencies working to deconstruct our free-market, capitalist Republic) while undermining America’s superpower status.
Nothing like getting ready in advance (i.e., they did NO PLANNING AT ALL, until now).
Everything done by the administration from this to the publishing of tax withholding tables has been based on the assumption that the REPUBLICANS will cave.
But the law is the law, and Obama should have followed it. The law says the defense cuts start Tuesday and taxes go up, starting Tuesday. They have flouted the law because they were so sure the the Republicans would cave...
They should be prosecuted just for that.
Take that 800,000 and multiply it by say a conservative salary figure (lets say 35,000 $ per year/annually), not counting all the medical/benefits.
And we have ____________________________
And that’s just one bureaucracy.
It is interesting that the Dems keep hitting us with these Defense cuts, when Defense cuts has been their motto FOR DECADES.
If the Democrats were BEING HONEST they would be telling us how great these cuts are, because the “Pentagon Budget” (as they call it) is so bloated.
Bottom line - The Democrats are in ABJECT FEAR of the cuts, they have promised EVERYONE not to worry and that the Republicans would fold, but they still haven’t folded?
Thanks for voting and supporting Obama - now get the Hell out. :D
DoD buddy of mine asked several months back his supervisor on when management will inform the workers to prepare if the fiscal cliff does happen. He was surprise to find out that DoD forbid their agency heads to prepare for a fiscal cliff because it has not officially occur. Managers were absolutely forbidden to discuss this matter with their workers or face DoD legal action against them. Part of the reasoning is any unofficial preparation of workers may spook contractors that something will happen. The other unofficial rumor reason is that Obama did not want to affect his re election efforts. The bottom line is furlough will hit the DoD workforce snd many of the workers will be surprise because they assume everything is OK from the silence of their management. Any DoD freepers out there, get out the popcorn and watch the show. Wonder how the non DoD workers will react when entitlement programs take a hit. DoD workers are not the only ones who will suffer cutbacks.
“He was surprise to find out that DoD forbid their agency heads to prepare for a fiscal cliff because it has not officially occur. “
So forget the cliff. If defense spending were to be cut by, say, 20% next year in a budget approved by Congress and signed by the president - he’s saying that DOD would do NOTHING at all in anticipation of the lower budget, prior to October 1 - nothing, like lowering the rate of buying new hardware, in advance? Of course not...in fact they place orders YEARS IN ADVANCE. Were they placing orders based on funds that were NEVER BUDGETED?
My point is that the Cliff spending level is the law of the land, passed by Congress and signed by the President - and yet they were told it wasn’t real. Like I say, CRIMINAL CHARGES need to be filed here.
My first assignment was to Fort Knox. I had pay problems, so I went to the finance office. It was 90% civilian. We turned in a tank for a scheduled rebuild. It went to The Boatwright Maintenance Facility. It was 95% civilian. I realized that 90+% of the “good” permanent jobs at Fort Knox were held by civilians. I started to look into it. They weren’t paid less than the Soldiers. They weren’t doing jobs that were beyond the Soldier’s capabilities. But, they lived there. The Soldiers would move every couple of years. The civilian workers had bought homes and were staying there. They were residents. They voted for the local politicians. I finally realized that the “good” jobs were taken by civilian government employees as a reward. Vote Democrat, and be rewarded.
We need to close 200 military bases world wide . I could care less about these cuts. Why do we have troops in Japan,Germany? What a joke. Bring them home and put them on the Mexican border. And no damned AMNESTY!!
I believe this “edge of the fiscal cliff” crap is a sham to the inth degree.
I can see the headlines now, “Obama saves the nation, averting fiscal cliff disaster”.
Just feels like a facade.
It would make him the center of attention right at New Year’s, and could serve as an alter to set the agenda for the next year - which he could then harp on at the State of the Union address.
“In 2009,the company I worked for lost 2 major customers resulting in a 25% pay cuts for many of us.
Guess what? We survived and learned to get by with less pay.”
Did your company have defense contracts or commercial contracts?
I remember well the massive layoffs in 1989-1992 in SoCal.
If the GOP want to loose big, then go over the cliff.
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