Posted on 08/11/2012 9:11:03 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The spending plan proposed by Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, Mitt Romney’s pick as the Republican vice presidential candidate, has drawn strong opposition from federal employees.
Under the proposed House Republican budget, which Ryan sponsored as chairman of the Budget Committee, savings from the federal workforce would total $368 billion over 10 years. The two-year freeze on basic federal pay rates, scheduled to expire at the end of this year, would be extended through 2015 for a total of five years.
“The Path to Prosperity,” as the budget plan is named, also calls on federal workers to make an unspecified “more equitable contribution to their retirement plans,” which means higher costs to employees. Additionally, the federal workforce would be cut, through attrition over three years, by 10 percent, which equals more than 200,000 positions.
Because the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Justice and Homeland Security have so many employees, the majority of the eliminated positions would come from these agencies, all of which are related to national security.
The budget document says its plans “reflect the growing frustration of workers across the country at the privileged rules enjoyed by government employees.”
Ryan’s budget justifies the employee-related cuts, saying “it is no coincidence that private sector employment continues to grow only sluggishly while the government expands: To pay for the public sector’s growth, Washington must immediately tax the private sector or else borrow and impose taxes later to pay down the debt.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Fire every Federale at the EPA. This would make me happy. You can get rid of 80% of the Department of Education, all that place is, is an haven for affirmative action hires. Doing nothing useful, just living off the private sector taxpayers
Cut deep at the Interior Department which impedes more drilling in America
Get rid of EEOC another affirmative action hiring hall. I would love to know what percentage white guys (that are not gay) are that work there. I’ll bet it not more than 20%. That sure reflects the local population. They only hire their own over there, same as universities and other Federal Departments and agencies
As I said, it was clear that you were the one who came up with the list of people being fired, because the article didn’t say what you claimed it said.
And you also said he was calling for firing people. In fact, he is calling for not hiring new people, and eliminating positions when the people who currently work them leave or retire. That’s the difference between layoffs and cutting hiring authority. Often you will see government “cutting positions”, and you have to know that those positions aren’t currently filled.
That is important, because the unions always scream about “cutting positions”, trying to trick the average person into believing their neighbors are being fired.
Good articles will use the term “attrition” to make that clear, as this article did.
The Defense department could well need to be trimmed. We know that Obama and the democrats threw a lot of “green job” crap into the DoD budget, so they could pretend they were pro-military while actually just spending more money on junk science. All of that could be cut, maybe starting with the bio-fuels program that doesn’t seem to do anything to help the military, but does double our costs.
We could also cut the department that was put together to study the military dangers of global warming. We are planning for the destablilization caused by something that is a fiction, to the tune of billions of dollars. Which was just a way to get money to the liberal science community with “global warming credentials”.
The Posties know who goes first ~ and there you have it!
Ryan's plan is one of those big picture things ~ sequestration is much nearer in time and closer to home.
Haven't checked, but I think Ryan agreed to this particular deal.
Let me interject a little here. I am retired from the Army and currently employed by the Army in acquisition, although I actually work for each of you taxpayers. When I was hired into this job my supervisors bought my experience gained from wearing a uniform for 25 years and the integrity that I have always had. I have now worked in the acquisition field for about the past 15 years. It is my job to make sure that you, Mr Taxpayer, get your money’s worth from the likes of Lockheed Martin, SAIC, Booze Allen Hamilton, and others. They all have platoons of contract attorneys that write their proposals while collaborating with the lobbyists they have lurking the halls of Capitol Hill. What do we have? A young attorney right out of law school is my legal expert.
We do have our share of waste fraud and abuse, but there are those of us who are on the federal payroll who are honest, who work a full + shift, who are proud of what they do. My grandparents and parents instilled a sense of doing what is right in me from day one. Now I get to use that in doing my little part in keeping spending within the guidelines that congress provided us. I have not received a pay raise in three years, performance awards are not funded by the organization I work for. I do happen to be at a stage of my life where a pay freeze is not killing me, in fact I contribute more to my retirement (TSP) than 90% of the workforce does and have bumped my contribution up every few months for the past 3 years.
Where is this heading? For a total reform in the Federal Civil Service . Something that congress has long neglected to do. The Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) that I am under was a step in the right direction. Now, to look at our health benefits along with the life insurance program. When I had 5 kids at home I paid the same as a married employee with a spouse did. Now, my wife and I are paying the same as that employee with 5 kids. Is that fair? Not sure, you tell me. I have over $300,000 worth of life insurance for a few dollars every month. Wonder who underwrites the rest? Thank you Mr Taxpayer.
Off my soapbox now. Hope everyone has a great weekend and I really look forward to 2020 and having VP Ryan running for president. Wonder who he will pick for VP?
Now that's not all that common but did you realize the United States has one of the highest incidences of blindness in the world ~ it's the machine world, accidents, etc.
So, we patch 'em up and keep those eyes working so the people can "Get Around" ~ which is an official medical type term meaning "Get Around" ~ which is much better than being house bound, or bed ridden, etc.
With the magic of modern electronics I'm able to read and write on a computer through the simple expedient of blowing up the image and the letters so I can read them without the aid of additional lenses. Hey, give me the right sunglasses I can drive too, and as long as I can 'get around' I won't develop those circulatory problems that can lead to loss of limbs, and life prematurely.
Getting around is good. FEHB paid for it ~ of course I paid FEHB For four decades!
What you need to do is get rid of the NON REVENUE EARNERS! That's all the DOEs and the DOD for what that's worth.
Doesn’t matter how much revenues they raise, if they are in the red. Kill the USPS.
It's not like they don't have value ~ they have had a loss. The federal government's general budget, however, is essentially ALL RED INK.
Any business shuts down the nonperformers first! There goes DOD, DOE, DOE, federal court system, White House mess, Interior, FBI, Treasury, and so forth. All those agencies don't bring in a penny! DUMP THEM.
I know by well how to build and run businesses. I would shut down the USPS.
you’d do that just to hurt your competitors who advertise by mail. it’s really not the purpose of government to pick and chose winners
No, I wouldn’t, and my competitors do not “advertise by mail.”
The Post Office continues to bleed money like a stuck pig. Why in the world are labor costs so high at the USPS? It should be completely privatized and sold off to the highest bidder.
I completely agree that the government should not choose winners and losers! Consequently, we must END THE FIRST CLASS MAIL USPS MONOPOLY and allow any company to service this niche. Also, no more money from the taxpayers for the USPS!
Once you come to an understanding of which laws create what privileges then you can figure it out from there.
Turns out you aren't really up against the Postal Service ~ rather you are up against the entire United States banking system ~ and as you've just seen they can tap the Treasury for 2 trillion dollars and nobody bats an eye. USPS is small potatoes in that traffic.
Going beyond that, USPS is simply the federal government agency set up to allow YOU and I access to the letter mail business. Without USPS you have no access since it's otherwise a monopoly of the bankers who have no interest whatsoever in your pitiful small contribution to the stream of letters.
BTW, the federales have this right through the 'post offices and post roads" clause in the Constitution so you'll need to change that too.
Lotsa' luck
A load of rubbish you’ve typed.
Just because the Constitution grants the authority to build roads and maintain a Post Office doesn’t mean that it MUST do those things!
There is no justification for maintaining the USPS. It is losing money as fast as it can, and its labor costs are through the roof compared to private firms. If you think it’s okay for them to lose $12B this FY alone, how much is too much? $20B? $40B? Just how much money do you want to the taxpayers to spend to keep this anachronism going?
The rest of your argument is seriously defective in that the Supreme Court and the Congress have determined things to be otherwise.
Obozo and his minions in the Senate wanted to keep useless antiquated services going with direct taxpayer subsidies, but the House never acted on that legislative initiative, so nothing has changed. The losses mount up ~ but the USPS Has resources.
They finally got rid of it and moved all their business to USPS because USPS was far less expensive ~ even though the salary rates were higher.
Moving the mail in a time sensitive and efficient manner is a highly technical undertaking. USPS does that better than anyone else in the world.
You are being creative in your use of the term, “efficient.” The USPS are losing gobs of money—they are the picture of inefficiency!
I think you don't know enough about the topic to discuss it.
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