Nobody is even discussing direct public layoffs! Ultimately, it would be the decision of each agency to determine how it will balance any cuts they get. Some may be laid off, others may simply cease more hiring.
FWIW, though, entitlements ARE a much bigger piece of the pie than government salaries are.
I come from a different viewpoint here. My wife is a federal employee, one who also has private sector experience prior to it.
If she lost her job, we probably would be screwed as she earns far more than I do.
Now, in a “normal” economy, she’d probably easily be able to find a private sector job that would be similar enough in duties and salary that we’d be fine, but in Obama’s economy, not so much.
She was private sector, did well, and has the aptitude and intelligence to go back there.
Problem is, Obama’s policies have so decimated her line of work in the private sector, that it would be difficult.
I wonder if that was the intent all along...
I’m not interested in berating anybody for the individual choices they made in their careers. A lot of people who went to work for any number of large corporations, Chrysler for instance, probably went home to pats on the back and accolades from their friends and family—”You’re set until you retire , man”— what happened to them when the assembly plant folded to economic reality? Unfortunately, that grim economic reaper is coming knocking at the door of government employees now. By what argument is that not appropriate? Blame the politicians who have carried on the grand old tradition of political patronage to the point that some order of collapse is inevitable.