DoD buddy of mine asked several months back his supervisor on when management will inform the workers to prepare if the fiscal cliff does happen. He was surprise to find out that DoD forbid their agency heads to prepare for a fiscal cliff because it has not officially occur. Managers were absolutely forbidden to discuss this matter with their workers or face DoD legal action against them. Part of the reasoning is any unofficial preparation of workers may spook contractors that something will happen. The other unofficial rumor reason is that Obama did not want to affect his re election efforts. The bottom line is furlough will hit the DoD workforce snd many of the workers will be surprise because they assume everything is OK from the silence of their management. Any DoD freepers out there, get out the popcorn and watch the show. Wonder how the non DoD workers will react when entitlement programs take a hit. DoD workers are not the only ones who will suffer cutbacks.
“He was surprise to find out that DoD forbid their agency heads to prepare for a fiscal cliff because it has not officially occur. “
So forget the cliff. If defense spending were to be cut by, say, 20% next year in a budget approved by Congress and signed by the president - he’s 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?
My point is that the Cliff spending level is the law of the land, passed by Congress and signed by the President - and yet they were told it wasn’t real. Like I say, CRIMINAL CHARGES need to be filed here.