Posted on 02/21/2013 3:31:23 PM PST by SkyPilot
The Defense Department on Wednesday officially notified Congress that it plans to begin furloughing its 800,000 civilian employees across the country if automatic spending cuts begin March 1, estimating the states would lose a total of $4.86 billion in workers’ wages this year.
According to Pentagon estimates, among the hardest-hit states would be Virginia, which would have about 88,000 affected workers and salary losses of $660.9 million; California, with 62,600 workers and $419.7 million in lost wages; and Maryland, with 45,700 workers and $359.3 million in lost earnings.
“This is not a Beltway phenomenon,” Jessica L. Wright, the acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told reporters at the Pentagon. “More than 80 percent of our civilians work outside of the D.C. metro area. They live and work in every state of the union.”
Under the furlough plan, civilian workers would be forced to take one day of unpaid leave each week for 22 weeks from late April through September, costing them about 20 percent of their pay during that time, Pentagon officials said.
In a written message, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta told civilian workers that they “will be provided at least 30 days’ notice prior to executing a furlough and your benefits will be protected to the maximum extent possible.”
He added that the Pentagon “also will work to ensure that furloughs are executed in a consistent and appropriate manner.”
Mr. Panetta noted that the department has been funded by a continuing resolution that has limited spending to 2012 levels and said the effects of sequestration may be felt more intensely because of it.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Think about what this decision by our Congress and Obama means.
Thanks SkyPilot.
Pelosi Takes Aim at Sequester’s “Cruelest Cut”
Semi-News/Semi-Satire | 16 Feb 2013 | John Semmens
Posted on 02/17/2013 9:26:10 AM PST by John Semmens
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2989417/posts
Over 100,000 civilian government workers weer added to the DoD payroll over the three years from FY2009-2011.
What has Obama done from a defense policy standpoint to need 100,000 more civil service members in the DoD?
If we had the same number of civil service members in the DoD as we had in FY2008, we probably would not need a furlough.
“God is relevant in all things, including our nation’s current predicament. Your pitiful lack of faith or acknowledgment of Him is your misfortune, not His”
My response reflects a lack of faith in bureaucrats and politicians, not a lack of faith in God.
You can’t seem to tell the difference - God is not some high-level bureaucrat ready to shuffle money from one pot to another to make the sequester problem go away.
You sir have a completely misguided concept of God if you are appealing to Him to fix our earthly debt problem, even if it is almost piled high-enough to reach the feet of God Himself.
“it is murdering the US military.”
LOL....murder? That’s a new one. What’s next “Holocaust Against the Military”? How about “Budget Genocide”?
“To harm military budget is to only increase the financial pain (to speak nothing of what it does to security and the immorality of harming those who have given the most for this nation).”
You are a Keynesian fool.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
Yes I get a pension, no its not enough to live on. My wife is a RN which allows us to be able to pay for school. Despite what you see on the news, we are not all making 6 figure salaries, far from it. When people wonder about my pension, it is payback for years of moving and constantly remaking my families lives. While civilians were able to take that 22 years and pay on a house note, I just started mine. My “pension” barely covers that. Unless of course you are saying military folk do not deserve the pay.
You need to look beyond the 22 days. That is 22 days where I cannot contribute to my 401K so that i will be able to retire one day. That is 22 days I do not earn my time off. That is 22 days that I still pay full price for healthcare but work fewer days. My children and I chose their college courses carefully. Both are in careers where they may not be millionaires but they will be able to live a good life.
Anyone can pay cash for college especially if they decided to be careful with debt to credit or loans and they planned by buying savings bonds starting 30 years ago. I am responsible for myself, I earned my pension and I will survive the Obama residency.
when you cast such a wide net about those “damned government employees” know the facts. We do not make 100K, we pay taxes like the rest, we pay into our 401Ks, we support the local economy, and only about 12% or so are in the union for DOD employees. Even now I and my co-workers are contributing directly to successes in Afghanistan, Iran, ROK, and Africa. I am as much now a part of the military team as I ever was, in fact we deploy along side of them at times.
By their fruits we shall know them.
You hide behind the concept of God, you invoke Him when you wish, but you don't care what He commands.
Shame on you.
That was classic.
I understand your passion and anguish. Yet it reminds me a little bit of every “conservative” congressman’s anguish when their own particular earmark is voted down. There has to be a point where the spending stops.
Democrats know from history that Republicans Always cave. They know that as an article of their faith. We always have caved. They scheme and “negotiate” based on that assumption.
I pray that this time the Republican Congress holds the line. It will not be the end of the Department of Defense. It may encourage more politicians to be more fiscally frugal.
You are partially correct magellan.
The decision of Washington DC was to "convert" many Defense contractors into GS workers. As a total, the DoD workers was a high population, but not as high as your numbers indicate.
There was intense argument within the DoD community as to whether is was cheaper (and more efficient) to hire more government civilians as opposed to contractors.
Contractors have the ability to hire and fire at will. They also (in my opinion) are more efficient.
I know that politics played a huge part: the government wanted its thumb under GS workers. It didn't diminish the people that performed the work - but the powers that be had their power.
However, the same people that were converted to DoD civilian were no less skilled. From Military Wording Dog (MWD) handlers to engineers. For the most part, however, the people employed were paid much less. That is simply a reality of the GS system.
I can apply that word to any platitude to any cause.
"I can appreciate your love you have for your family maica, yet, you must understand I had to attack them."
Please save it.
The reality of what is being done to the military is obscene. You may "pray the Republicans in Congress hold the line" - but that prayer would enforce the exponential explosion of Entitlement spending while punishing the military, and doing such in a way that breaks faith with those who have given so much to this country.
Fine for you to say, but you don't have to pay the price for it.
“Your profanity on your previous posts”
What did I say? I don’t remember. Probably minor as you are very thin-skinned and you have a tendency to exaggerate wildly.
“You hide behind the concept of God, you invoke Him when you wish, but you don’t care what He commands.”
You bring God to a sequester thread. As if God cares to fix the fiscal problem we’ve created as a country. I think you mean to pray to “Bernanke” on that one.
This is what you have to do. This isn't about the Defense budget. This is about your eternal destiny.
You must repent.
You have to admit you are a sinner.
Where you are right now is in the rail car to Hell itself.
Come to Jesus Christ, and He will save you.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God."
Ephesians 2:8
“This is what you have to do. This isn’t about the Defense budget. This is about your eternal destiny.”
No, it’s about the soul of our country. I care more about that - finding a way to convince people who depend on government not to do so - and then deeply cutting government so we can re-visit our God-given rights without being repeatedly violated by Government.
You and I have different views on the subject of God. I do not need to be lectured or saved by your god. I’ll settle for the Biblical God - but it has nothing to do with the sequester.
Let me see if I understand you correctly.
You think that by cutting the military, the politicians will learn to cut other parts of government and make better choices.
Really?
Because I think they will take the opposite lesson. That they can continue to gut the military while they continue to spend wildly on everything that is unconstitutional.
Defense spending as a percentage of the total budget is down to about 14%. In 1962 it was about 49% of the federal budget.
And the trend apparently will continue, because half the sequestion cuts are military cuts. What a flipping joke.
And we have people here who actually think we are accomplishing something.
The best way is to resurrect Calvin Coolidge.
The best way is to resurrect Calvin Coolidge.
I’m amazed at how little is being spent on International Affairs, Science, Transportation, and General Government. I always thought that the foreign aid budget was much larger. And if so little is spent on Transportation, no wonder we have bridges collapsing.
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