Cost of Hiring a Federal Bureaucrat Getting More Expensive for Taxpayers

http://www.atr.org ^ | Wednesday, June 10, 2009 3:13 PM | Ryan Ellis

[antonia]

The cost of hiring and retaining a federal bureaucrat may be going up for taxpayers.

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 626, the "Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act." This bill would give federal employees up to four weeks of paid (that is, by taxpayers) parental leave for the birth or adoption of a child.

How generous of Congress with our money.

What this bill would do (and it has yet to pass the Senate) is to increase the cost of hiring a federal bureaucrat.  Based on my calculations from May, it costs between $2 million and $11 million to hire a federal employee for a working career.  Isn't that enough?  How much more do taxpayers need to pay for each federal bureaucrat?

[antonia]

That 2 to 11 million dollars are not dollars that have been made by creating wealth, they are dollars that have been stolen from the process of creating wealth. It's like taking fuel from your gas tank to use for mowing the lawn, and then wondering why you now don't have fuel to get to work with.

Each Czar that we add demands scores of Federal Lackeys, adding to the bureaucracies, needing increasing public funding (aka taxes) beyond the capability of the American citizen to pay. Another additional astonishing monumental move to crumble the American dream and sprit.

[AUH2O Repub]

I’ve seen this bill and I don’t see where it actually costs more money, the employees still get the same amount of paid leave but they can use it for birth of a child or adoption without having to get special approval.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Are you sure this isn’t four more weeks of paid leave IN ADDITION TO their normal annual leave? If this four weeks is taken from their normal annual leave, why do we need this stupid bill? The government doesn’t care why you take your annual leave.

[muawiyah]

I believe it's just a bill to establish permanently something that's now just based on an executive order.

Could be wrong, but I don't see them giving any more paid days to "federales" ~ for any reason.

[popdonnelly]

Not a problem, just lay off the bureaucracy. We can’t afford them, anyway.

[Jack Hammer]

All commissars are equal; some commissars are a little more equal.

[muawiyah]

BTW, your boss still has control over WHEN you take leave. I never had permission in 38 years to take more than three weeks at a time ~ nor did I ever make plans to do that.

I saw a Leftwingtard supervisor named Harvey Altergott say no to an employee's request to tend to his dying mother's last days.

Guy's mother died in just a few days at which point he was able to take leave without Harvey's permission.

You have no idea how vicious federal supervisors can be. There's very little investigation into qualifications in the fed so you end up with entirely too many sociopaths, alcoholics and thieves as supervisors.

[genghis]

I am a gov worker, i teach high school.
Do you ever see gov workers stressed out? It is an incredibly good gig (for those employed, not those that have to deal with gov workers). I get paid whether my students pass or not, whether they learn or not, whther they like me or not.
How many of you in the private sector can piss off your boss and customers and have a job for 30 years?
Same with almost every branch of government. This is not the way America became rich.
why rats want to give more power to unaccountable gov workers is beyond me.

[muawiyah]

"every branch" (by which I suppose you mean "every department" at "every level") isn't the same as teaching school.

I know a young man whose federal job has him evaluating the wear rate at the footings of bridges over streams and rivers throughout the Midwest.

It's dangerous work. In the Summer it's hot, wet, nasty and even more dangerous this year since it's flooding all the time due to the high rainfall.

Contrasting school teachers with professional firefighters, you did not see school teachers climbing up the World Trade Center to rescue people.

I used to find myself in "downtown" just about anyplace in America quite regularly going to or leaving from a post office (as part of my job). Do you know what's going on at 2AM? I'll tell you it's not pretty ~ and walking those dark streets you know you are definitely a target for every cutthroat, thief, murderer or hellraiser who wanted to play games.

My complaint is the way the feds pick supervisors ~ very little attention is paid to the matter and too many inadequate people are put into positions of authority and responsibility they simply are not fit to hold.

[popdonnelly]

The Democrats want to give power to government workers for the same reason they do everything. To stay in power themselves. I’ve never seen a more dishonest, venal bunch.

[EGPWS]

No biggie, just print some more.

[Son House]

Tim Geithner Asks For A Bigger Treasury Budget

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270585/posts

800 new IRS employees to combat offshore tax evasion

755 employees to increase examinations of tax returns for businesses and high-income individuals;

300 employees to expand the IRS document matching program

491 employees to improve collection operations and build two new IRS automated collection center sites.

[AUH2O Repub]

It’s like state and fed governments having “liberal leave” policy for bad snowstorms. It basically just means that you don’t have to have permission to use your leave hours for that day. As if anyone is going to be charged AWOL if they can’t get to work because of weather anyway. Just another useless paperwork exercise.

[USNBandit]

I saw a Leftwingtard supervisor named Harvey Altergott say no to an employee's request to tend to his dying mother's last days

Couldn't he use sick leave under the Family Leave Act, or did that incident pre-date that law? I constantly use that for a sick kid and kid's doctor's appointments.

[muawiyah]

Predated the law. Actually, when they passed the law it didn't apply to the Postal Service or the rest of the federal government. The President issued an executive order to include federal government employees EXCEPT for postal workers.

The USPs was finally included not long before I retired.

I assure you the privilege of taking your own unpaid leave or paid vacaion was simply not an inducemenet to have a baby!

Postal workers have less liberty to take their leave when they want it than others. For one thing there's this period from October to January where just about every hand is needed to work. That does not include Headquarters employees. They are usually needed during budget preparation and review ~ February through April. Frankly management doesn't care if you need to go to your mother's funeral!

[Condor51]

This is from the Congressional Budget Office

H.R. 626
Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2009

CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 626 would cost $67 million in 2010 and a total of $938 million over the 2010-2014 period, subject to appropriation of the necessary funds.

~~~ snip~~

CBO assumes that the potential users of the new leave would be primarily the roughly 700,000 civilian employees who are between the ages of 20 and 44 and have been employed at least 12 months.

What the hell. Its only our money.