Posted on 12/30/2012 10:27:43 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
WASHINGTONThe Pentagon is preparing to notify its entire civilian workforce to prepare for furloughs if Congress and President Barack Obama are unable to reach a deal before Jan. 2 to avert automatic spending cuts.
A senior defense official said Sunday that the Pentagon would notify 800,000 civilian workers to brace for furloughs in the new year, meaning the workers would be ordered to take mandatory leave without pay for a certain period. The warning is much gloomier than the agency recently offered employees, as it had said there wouldn't be an immediate impact on personnel or operations if a deal wasn't reached by January
The automatic spending cuts were put in place by the 2011 Budget Control Act and require $110 billion in spending reductions, split between defense programs and other domestic agencies. The cuts must take place in the first nine months of 2013, and then $110 billion in cuts will take place for eight additional years, under the conditions of the 2011 law. Democrats and Republicans have been working to replace or postpone the cuts but they have been unable to reach an agreement.
The Pentagon will be forced to cut $55 billion in spending in the first nine months of 2013, a roughly 10% reduction in many of its programs. The cuts would affect more than just the agency's workforce, as the White House has said the military's budgets for purchasing aircraft, ammunition, missiles and other items will be cut sharply.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Sean,
Do you remember the massive layoffs in 1989-1992 in the l.a. area?
It was brutal... every major defense contractor was cutting jobs.
Lurker, Gaffer, Diana in Wisconsin
Are any of y’all working for companies with defense contracts?
If so, what are your prospects for next year?
There are 800,000 government civilians.
If you run into three government employees on an average military post, on average one is a civil servant and the other two are military.
That does not yet include the hoards of contractors.
This is insane.
The vast majority of the of the DOD personnel cuts since the late 1980s have been to the uniformed active duty side.
The civilians primarily operate in an administrative capacity. It is administration which has seen the most automation as a result of the information revolution of the last 30 years. Yet the DOD still carries such a significant level of administrative overhead.
The uniformed services require some level of overhead, because of the risk associated with warfare. There has to be a designated deputy in case the leader is killed or injured. This level of redundancy no longer exists in the private sector. Nor does every first level manager have a an administrative assistant (i.e., secretary) any more. In most cases you need to be a manager of managers of managers to warrant an administrative assistant.
But the government is different.
Actually the plan is another behind closed doors meeting, just like in the 2008 Bailout Babies collateral fraud, and the code speak “bi-partisan” (so called “banks”...anti-Glass Steigal scammers, “insurance” non-insurance i.e “investors”, and Federal workers retirement pensions), and buy time until they can pass it off (collateral transformation) by Extortion-Care, on everybody else but them.
Remember what happened in the end to Mussolini, just to name one dictator....it could happen to YOU, and you know who I mean.
The way they throw that 800,000 jobs number around sounds deceiving. They don’t say how many would be affected at any one particular time. They make it sound like 800K people are going to be thrown out of work. That’s not what a “rolling furlough” is like.
I work in the private sector, and a few years ago everybody in my company had to take a week’s unpaid furlough every quarter for a year. If I have had to do it, then I have no sympathy for the civilian employees of the military.
BobL wrote:
“If defense spending were to be cut by,say,20% next year in a budget approved by Congress and signed by the president - hes saying that DOD would do NOTHING at all in anticipation of the lower budget,prior to October 1 - nothing,like lowering the rate of buying new hardware,in advance? Of course not...in fact they place orders YEARS IN ADVANCE. Were they placing orders based on funds that were NEVER BUDGETED?”
Questions to BobL and fee:
The company i work for has a contract for x Widgets to be sold to xx branch of the military, it goes to the end of 2013.
Does the DoD expect sudden cuts/cancellation of the project?
Multiply that by however many programs..... and its 1989-1992 all over again.... or will it be that bad?
I was in an industry dependent on Government contracts but I retired last January 1. The unit I ran currently has about 12 months of paid backlog.
If the cliff hits and they have to curtail entitlements and Social Security, etc., then I’ll not get my SS payment.
Regardless of this, I’ll have to make do without, because I’d still rather see this government live within its means like the rest of us have to do. We cannot survive in a country where half the people are on some sort of welfare and likely don’t get up before noon.
Heck, I’m clueless. I’m just pointing out that people working in government are required to follow the law, and the law includes projected spending based on what’s been passed by Congress.
In this case, they are IGNORING the law (understandingly) expecting the Republicans to cave - but still breaking the law.
What’s so great about going over “the cliff”?
A jihadist’s dream come true. Bammy is “progressing.”
its a start.......I think our military has to change too....fewer lifers.....far fewer...
How so?
They aren’t furloughing them permanently. What they intend to do is rotate personnel through 1 furlough day per pay period. Now one would think that if they actually let some people go they would be able to get the same amount done without having to pay for benefits for as many people.
does anyone really expect 800,000 layoffs if their budget is the same as last year?
Let me guess though....obozo’s security detail is off limits to any cuts.
Am I close?
Because it may help the government cut its entitlement spending, or at the very least think harder about trying to expand ways to entrap and enslave more people with money for nothing. I’m not saying it is a panacea for all this country’s ills, but it is a check on Obama’s spending.
Last year, Obama’s extra entitlement spending amounted to $1.2 Trillion Dollars spread over 80+ programs. This was in addition to Social Security and Medicare. Why would you be ‘for’ stopping the ‘cliff’?
I completely agree with you... retirement promises made are simply unsustainable from an economic point of view.
my husband was active duty air force for 13 years and got out and has a civilian non federal job. people were incredulous with our decision but we knew it was best for us
DoD legal guidance was the cliff can be avoided by a political settlement, thus it would be wrong to panick the people until the political deal fails to occur. Under DoD legal guidance, managers cannot inform their workers until the last moment. Problem many DoD workers do not pay attention to politics. From the financial papers they read, MSM argue a deal will happen because the sequestor is too horrible to accept.
Problem with the legal guidance is during the 1994 shutdown, DoD made plans way ahead of the shutdown and managers prepped. So why was it legal to prepare in 1994 and illegal to prepare in 2012? Something is not right here.
The largest monetary department in the government is now HHS and second is Social Security. It won't be long before we spend more financing the debt than we do on defense.
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