Posted on 01/10/2008 12:24:13 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson wants to curb government spending by halting federal hiring.
If elected, Thompson said, he would stop government agencies from acquiring new personnel for one year and his administration would perform senior-level assessments of agency priorities.
This will give a new administration time to assess its personnel requirements in order to right size the federal workforce, according to a statement posted earlier this week on Thompsons campaign Web site.
Two other candidates have promised to reshape the federal workforce. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he would not rehire half the positions that will be vacated after the baby boomer retirement wave hits in the next three years. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) said she would cut half a million contractors.
Thompson also promised to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of all federal programs in an effort to defund, combine or probate underperforming projects. The issue was spurred by the results of the Office of Management and Budgets Program Assessment Rating Tool, which found many government programs moderately effective or ineffective.
The Bush administration responded similarly to PART results, eventually issuing an executive order Nov. 13 requiring all agencies to select performance improvement officers to be part of a Performance Improvement Council. The council will be charged with standardizing evaluation criteria, monitoring performance assessments and making policy recommendations.
The genius of simplicity . Hit em hard tonight Senator .
BUMP
Correct!
And that should be a reason to drop Republican candidates because you can check either D or R but not really be one?
Good point. Also, outsourcing to private sector just
shifts the work to a shadow govt. workforce. That in
turn, makes it harder to cut $, because of accusations
of hurting the economy.
Glad to see Fred is being specific about how to cut costs.
I would argue that we will never know what government SHOULD cost because the incentives are wrong for internal cost cutting. The way to higher personal compensation for any government employee is to have a bigger budget, more employees to manage, and a bigger personal empire. They will fight to the death to defend their department’s budget and justify their headcount because it justifies their own salary.
I’d like to see a program of RAISES and BONUSES for government employees based on how much they CUT SPENDING compared to the previous year. That could be as simple as a clerk finding more efficient ways to do things, or finding cheaper suppliers, or as widespread as a department head reducing headcount. If they reduce the spending they are responsible for by 10%, they get a one-time bonus equal to 10% of salary and a 10% raise. So cuts that save $100B net out as $80B in cuts the first year and $90B less in all future years.
Yeah it happens, especially when their’s no race on the other side. Did it happen at our caucus? I don’t know. The Dem race was pretty hot with record turnout so I doubt it.
We did have an ungodly turnout at ours too, but while I was in line it looked like they were marking people right off the registered GOP list, so I think the switching was minimal, and genuine. All the GOP candidate brought over Dems who switched parties, and IMO are going to stay GOP.
I think the old coalitions are realigning and you are going to see alot of people switching parties permanently over the next few years.
http://tinyurl.com/npt6tThe consequence of widespread constitutional ignorance, fallout from FDR era 10th A.-ignoring politics in my opinion, is that the people have become detached from the idea that the Founder's required that all federal government powers be explicitly listed in the federal Constitution, particularly those powers associated with federal spending.
http://tinyurl.com/hehr8
As I have mentioned elsewhere, the people need to wise up to what's going on with respect to constitutionally unauthorized federal government spending and put the federal gorilla back into its cage. The people need to petition spending-happy government leaders who are not upholding their oaths to defend the Constitution, demanding that they resign from their jobs. Federal taxes need to be appropriately lowered too.
True, but contractors tend to be both much more efficient and easier to cut. There are definitely exceptions, but generally it is better to bid out the work to contractors.
Hey, watch it now...
That’s MOST Federal employees maybe, but there are a few exceptions ;-)
More like a tourniquet. The first step in first aid, is to stop the bleeding.
Maybe he’ll trim or close the education and energy departments for a starters.
I couldn’t agree more on all of the above. I’m afraid that if Thompson doesn’t do well in SC, he will throw his support to McCain.
Several of the candidates are talking about reducing the size of the staff at FedGov. Unfortunately the solution will probably not reduce the budget at all since mercenaries will be hired. In fact it will probably cost more.
That was the gist of it;o)
Because we’ve become a welfare-laden nation largely comprised of poorly educated and uninformed socialists. Only the dumbest people in the United States would vote for a far left shill or a bunch of phonies like Huckabee, Romney, McCain or Rudy. What you see now is just the result of years of moral decline, a liberally-biased education system and a bunch of deadbeats that want the government to give them everything. In other words, welcome to Europe.
Another good idea from Fred.
The following is the rest of the story:
RUSH: Rich Lowry posted something interesting yesterday at National Review Online. He entitled it “The McCain Weakness.” This is what he wrote: “This is it: Conservatives were 54% of the electorate [in New Hampshire] and McCain lost to Romney among them by seven points. When the race moves south, conservatives will probably be 75-80% of the electorate, and they will presumably dominate in closed primaries. But this is the thing: At the outset, it looked like the way the early states were stacked up would help Romney. But once Romney lost Iowa, they were stacked up to help McCain.
“The Arizona senator might be able to all but knock Romney out of the race in Michigan with another strong showing among independents, meaning he could possibly KO Romney without ever beating him handily among Republicans. Weird, huh? Then, with Romney gone, McCain is presumably competing with Huckabee and Rudy (although Fred is still lurking) for those conservative voters and that’s a fight he could well win.”
Now, this is really fascinating, and it also illustrates how the little people actually knew before all these primaries began. All this hype about who has to win where and who has to win what, is meaningless — except for what I said. You have Iowa, New Hampshire, two states that do not feature conservatives.
The caucuses are a weird setup in Iowa, and, of course, New Hampshire anybody can cross the state line and vote, and among conservatives Romney beat McCain by seven points! It was with independents he won. Now, we’re Republicans, and theoretically we’re out there trying to nominate a conservative to run as president here, as close to one as we can get, and yet the guy who wins New Hampshire is going all over the board, and the guy who wins Iowa getting votes from independents, who by definition are not conservatives! This is why, folks — this is precisely why — McCain and Huckabee are feverishly trying to get Romney out now, as soon as they can, and this is why they are being vicious in their attacks on Romney.
This is why we repeatedly point out here that the states that allow independents and even Democrats to vote in their Republican primaries are not indicative of the Republican Party, which is why McCain and Huckabee have shots in them. McCain and Huckabee are winning these early states, where Republicans are outnumbered. It’s not Republicans; it’s not conservatives in majority who were electing Huckabee or McCain, so far, voting for them. Michigan is the same. Now, the Democrats in Michigan, they got a little bit different problem because Michigan violated party rules and is running ahead of when the party wanted to, so Michigan’s getting no delegates. The Republican Party is penalizing Michigan a little but not totally, so there are delegates at stake for the Republicans in Michigan.
So Hillary is the only person on the ballot in Michigan. Nobody else is competing there. The Democrat Party in Michigan is urging people on the Democrat side to vote nobody. They don’t want them crossing the aisle. They want nobody, because they’re trying to get even with the party and make amends at the same time to try to get some delegates that can vote and count at the convention. So they’re trying to not vote for Hillary.
They don’t want them crossing the aisles and voting on the Republican side. But McCain clearly wants that, which is what happened last time in Michigan in 2000 and Huckabee clearly wants that.
So if McCain and Huckabee can combine to pick up most of the independent Democrat vote, and even if Romney gets most of the Republicans, he’s still going to be outnumbered. So Romney will be defeated if this happens in three states, not by Republicans voting against him, but by Democrats and independents.
This is key to understanding, and it’s fascinating because Romney figured Iowa and New Hampshire would launch him. Now he’s gotta go to Michigan, and he’s gotta go to Nevada, and then everybody’s gotta go to South Carolina. So it’s fascinating to me, folks.
Here we have Republican primaries in which Democrats and independents are determining our winners! It’s important that you understand that. Romney... I hate to say this, but Romney may be out of this before we ever get to states where a majority of Republicans, conservative Republicans are going to vote — and look at who the choices might be then! I don’t think he’s going to get out. But I mean the definition is he’s done, he’s cooked, he’s lost four, hasn’t won one. At some point you gotta win something for momentum. He’s not going to get South Carolina. By Super Tuesday, Republicans might have as their two choices people that are not conservatives that have been elected, I should say, and have their leads based on votes from Democrats and independents. Can you say “screwed”?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, I want to clarify something. I might have left the impression that Romney would get out after Michigan. The press is talking about that.
The press, once again, is repeating the mistakes: “If he doesn’t win in New Hampshire, he’s finished. He’s gone.” He’s still in there, and he leads the delegate count right now, and they’re saying, “If he doesn’t win Michigan, he’s going to get out. It’s done. He’s finished. He’s not going to get out.” He will precisely not get out until Super Tuesday because the real conservative voices in terms of the American people have not been heard! It’s independents and Democrats who have given victories to Huckabee and McCain so far.
It was Romney who won a majority of Republican votes in New Hampshire. But they were outnumbered by all the other people that could cross over and vote from whatever party or no party. So Romney’s not going to get out. His strategy is to wait ‘til Republican conservatives actually start voting here, in these primaries, and they haven’t yet, in terms of a majority, and it’s not going to be the case in Michigan, either
I couldn’t agree more on all of the above. I’m afraid that if Thompson doesn’t do well in SC, he will throw his support to McCain.
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