Many federal workers facing furloughs are veterans

Washington Post ^ | 13 Feb 13 | Steve Vogel

[SkyPilot]

If the federal government is forced to furlough civilian employees in the event of sequestration, the burden will fall heavily on a population that Congress and the White House have vowed to support: veterans.

More than two out of five of the approximately 800,000 Department of Defense employees facing furloughs are veterans, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday. “Forty-four percent of them are veterans,” Carter told the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on the potential effect of sequestration on the military. ”Very soon we’re going to have to furlough the great majority of them.”

The Pentagon expects to furlough its civilian employees for the maximum statutory length of 22 days between the beginning of April and the end of the year, Carter said. That will amount to 20 percent of their pay, he noted.

“So there’s a real human impact here,” Carter said. ” … We’re asking all those people who are furloughed to give back a fifth of their salary.”

Across the federal workforce of approximately 2 million employees, about 27.3 percent are veterans, according to new figures for fiscal 2011 from the Office of Personnel Management. More than a quarter of the veteran employees are disabled, according to the OPM.

The furloughs, together with a federal hiring freeze, no pay raises for three years, contractor layoffs...

[Ax]

I’m a 4-year active duty veteran, and a 33-year federal (DOD) employee, retired sine 1997. My daughter is not a vet. She works for the same agency that I did. She recently finished her third deployment to Bagram Air Field Afghanistan. I hope this helps her avoid the axe that will fall on DOD’s neck.

[Chainmail]

You need to settle down and apply some logic: I'm responding to someone who says that veterans who go on to serve in government or government support careers are not needed - and are really horrible "double dippers". I'm telling him that we are needed and even necessary. I did not say that we shouldn't have people coming straight out of civilian life too. We need a mix of people and viewpoints and varieties of talents.

As far as "getting over myself" goes - why? I have done an exceptional job of serving my country (including losing part of my right leg to a machinegun bullet) and I have done really great things to keep our country ahead of the world technologically. There are certainly many, many others that have done the same but I don't see any reason at all to hide my own light under a bushel basket.

Like many others, I didn't get a parade when I got back from Vietnam - quite the opposite, really. Now I am my own parade.

[SkyPilot]

We simply can’t afford this anymore.

If you look at the chart I posted by the Heratige Foundation, it confirms your concerns and mine that our fiscal path is disasterous. But take a good look at it again. Even if we took Defense spending down to nothing, we are ruined without serious, long range entitlement reform.

The Sequestration barely touches any associated entitlement spending - the the contrary - almost every program is completely exempt.

We seem to have money to dole out hand over fist for entitlements, but when it comes to defense (which is a Constitutional enterprise by the way), we suddenly adopt a "we're broke" mantra?

Defense is reeling from a triple round of blows: the $487 Billion cut spread out over ten years that began 2 years ago during Obama I, the Continuing Resolution which has frozen Pentagon accounts, and now the $600 Billion in Sequestration cuts.

These programs have plenty of money. They are not touched: Student Loans, Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, Earned Icome Tax Credit, Pell Grants, Unemployment Insurance, Medicare, Head Start, Social Security Disability, SSI--Supplemental Security Income, Medicaid, Welfare/Public Assistance, Government Subsidized Housing, Food Stamps.

Where is the outcry from Conservatives on this? I swear, I think I have sometimes logged onto the website of Mother Jones.

[Timber Rattler]

Lot of hypocrites on this thread I see...let's shrink the size of the federal government and get rid of excessive government employees, but only if they are not vets.

Puh-leeze! Do you know how many retired O-4s and above I see gaming the federal employee system each day with my own eyes? Hundreds, at least, if not thousands. They even have they own support networks and databases to help them move from cushy federal job to cushy federal job, which usually involve writing budgets, studies, and reports that are quickly filed and forgotten, when they are not attending federally sponsored conferences.

So spare me your outrage.

[Timber Rattler]

Timber Rattler probably is a guy making six figures on the outside and just bashes the military folks.

Bullcrap. My family is a military family and I guarantee that we have shed more blood for this country, going all the way back to the Revolutionary War, than you and yours.

But, the simple truth is that many of these folks have been gaming the system, and we can't afford it anymore.

[Timber Rattler]

I am so sick of these idiots who know NOTHING about government service mouthing off LIES!

It's amazing how loud you government employees can howl when anyone tosses a rock over your fence.

[Timber Rattler]

Too bad you didn't get involved and help your country. You and many others are lucky that I did get involved and learn what I learned and successfully apply that knowledge. Keeps you from have to attend compulsary Chinese language classes.

Blah, blah, blah. Like I said above, I come from a military family that has shed gallons of blood for this country, and I have no use for sanctimonious government employees like you who like to wave the bloody shirt to justify your continued gorging at the government trough.

[Night Hides Not]

Thanks for the additional info, and thanks for your service.

[napscoordinator]

It amazes me how wealthy people like yourself constantly have to bash the military folks who work for the government now. It is stunning.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Your security clearance stays with you for life.

Yes and no, once you get you clearance you have to be reinvestigated every 5 years for TS and Q and every 10 for S and L. Also, atleast in the defense business, your clearance can be downgraded. I've seen folks go from TS to S simply because the contractor did not have work requiring a TS.

[Timber Rattler]

I’m not wealthy by any means, but firmly middle class. And even if I was, why would it matter? By trying to throw my non-existent wealth in my face, you sound like one of Obama’s class warfare cronies, who cant get past their envy of rich people.

[US Navy Vet]

This is the REAL Deal(At least it is here at US Strategic Command/Offutt AFB, NE) where I am employed as a GS-11 US Air Force Civilian. We are FORCED to to take 1 day per week UNPAID(amounts to 16 Hours per a 2 week pay period). We CANNOT take Leave to alleviate the 1 day a week Leave without pay. Here is the URL from OPM regarding this:

http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/furlough-guidance/guidance-for-administrative-furloughs.pdf

[Cvengr]

Nice to see the criterion that anything governmental is useless. Obviously the next step is to remove elections and those people who think they can promote government by voting for it. /s

[palmer]

I don’t see the transcript yet (Duncan Hunter and JC Dempsey), but if I had to guess, Hunter was probably criticizing Dempsey for keeping wasteful programs around too long. The DoD gambled that sequestration would be averted so they didn’t really have to cut. Now I know there are current actual cuts but up to last year there were no actual cuts.

[US Navy Vet]

“Mom worked for Navy at Philly ship yard. NO ONE was fired no matter how little work was done.” Yeah and when the ships got Paroled out of the Philly “Shipyard” we (the Sailors/Ship’s Company) had to UNF*CK MOST of the “Work” that had been “Done(inflicted)” PHILLY SUCKED!

[US Navy Vet]

Starting 1 April 2013.

[Wolfie]

I’m just glad we found a protected class of government worker. FR is an amazingly two-faced place.

[US Navy Vet]

OK Just WHAY does YOUR DD-214 say. Mine says 20 Years 1 Month 18 Days of Honerable US Navy Service.

[Night Hides Not]

Taxpayers would be well served by the model followed by the FDIC: maintain a small cadre of permanent employees, supplemented by term (contract) workers, and based on work requirements. Those hired during the recent crisis were given two-year contracts, with an Agency option for a two year extension.

[Gritty]

A lot of people are missing the point here.

ALL government employees should get furloughed like the ones in DOD! At least it is arguable that DOD civilian employees do more "useful" work than the drones in the other way more useless departments.

Can you just imagine the "useful" work done by HHS, HUD, Commerce, Agriculture, Education, etc. ad nauseum? The answer is "practically none". Not only should they be furloughed, but most of their worthless jobs and agencies should be eliminated.

FedGov is a fat monster, totally out of control, in need of massive cuts, elimintions, and overhauls in ALL programs. That should be the point. Instead, we are arguing about only the vagaries of DOD employees. We arae falloing right in to the divide, conquer, and distract strategy right out of the Alinsky Playbook.