Dear XRdsRev,
"I am in a 'temporary' job 42+ hours per week, 52 weeks a year. My position is expected to last for 7-8 years. No health care, no vacation, no pension, no sick days...nothing."
Having lived here since 1966 (when my father took a government job), and having done federal contracting for most of the last 15 years, I've only known two other folks with one of those "temporary" positions.
It seems to me that the trend for the government is to outsource that kind of thing. Makes it easy to get rid of folks they don't like.
sitetest
Actually the segment of the Federal government that I work for categorizes 2/3rds of its force as "intermittant", thus they get no benefits, vacation etc. Of the thousands of people in this group, a significant number actually are intermittent (they don't work full time, year round) but hundreds if not thousands more, do perform full time.
Many are covered by the VA or various other government plans, some others are on their spouse's insurance. Unfortunately none of those options work for me and as it is right now, there is no way I as a single unaffiliated individual, can afford to buy health insurance.
A health insurance tax break would really help a guy like me.