Posted on 02/23/2013 5:52:08 AM PST by BarnacleCenturion
Not only is Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) calling out the Obama administration’s “dishonest” doom-mongering on the sequester, he also put forward his own plan, released today, to replace the impending cuts with alternative savings, and to do so “without layoffs,” according to a release from the senator’s office.
Paul’s bill would reduce federal spending by more than $85 billion annually by directing the government to:
Stop Hiring New Federal Employees ($6.5 billion per year)
More than 60,000 people left the federal workforce in 2011. This provision would end the practice of hiring new employees to replace them.
Bring Federal-Employee Pay in Line with Private Jobs ($32 billion per year)
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that federal-employee compensation is 16 percent higher compared with the private sector. This provision would reduce federal salaries to a more commensurate level.
Reduce Federal-Employee Travel by 25 Percent ($2.25 billion per year)
The federal government spends about $9 billion on travel, according to the General Services Administration, which ironically was the center of a recent scandal for its exorbitant spending on travel and conference costs. Paul bill’s would rein in such expenses.
Focus Military Research on Military Needs ($6 billion per year)
Paul’s office cites research from Senator Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), which found that the Defense Department spent $6 billion on research that had little or nothing to do with military needs.
Require Competitive Bidding for Government Contracts ($19 billion per year)
This provision would repeal prevailing-wage requirements under which employees are often paid higher wages to work on federal projects, and end the practice of awarding federal contracts without a competitive bidding process to ensure the government is contracting work at the lowest price possible.
Cut 50 Percent of Foreign Aid ($20 billion per year)
It is consistently one of the only portions of the budget Americans actually want to cut.
There. Fixed that for you since you obviously haven't been living in the US since Bobo took office...
Isn’t it just stunning how the gubmint employee never even contemplates that people GO OUT OF business in the private sector? It’s other planetary that so called conservatives look at “wages” as something that will aLWAYS be there, and will almost always GO UP every year, and that somehow a “freeze” is like robbing them. Methinks Trebb is a pro defense liberal.
Government employees don’t understand the concept of RIF or going out of business, because the government NEVER gets smaller, only larger. It doesn’t matter how bad things are on the outside—the government drones can be assured that their checks will keep coming and the happy times will keep rolling.
Trying to explain economic fundamentals to them is like explaining calculus to a bunch of goats. They are not equipped to understand.
I'm sick of being dumped on at this website. Maybe, I should take back my monthly donation and leave.
Alissa, I don’t know who you are, or where you decided to put yourself in the line of fire of my criticism, but I can only assume that since you pled “guilty as charged” without me even charging you, that you are indeed just a typical government employee...and you are indeed guilty of having a govt employee mentality. In fact, you proved you did, by this faux solidarity you have with all other governmemnt employees. That is a pack mentality, a bureaucratic turf protecting entitlement mindset by definition. And again, you went out of your way to demonstrate this about yourself - until now - you indict yourself - so I don’t have to. And again, you are being totally absurd to assume that other conservatives are even talking about DoD people when we say this.
It proves to me that yes, the hand out mentality has indeed pervaded our defense sector, even more than I thought. You indict yourself.
You should expect some blowback if you work for the runaway, out-of-control leviathan called the Federal Government. If you are too thin-skinned to handle it, you should refrain from reading a conservative forum.
OMG - read 64 and 65.
Funny, we are posting the same thing at the same time!
Actually, the blow back is deserved not so much for working for the bloated government, but it is 100% deserved for defending that government bloat in a self serving way, and for having the exact same mentality as a typical DMV employee has. That’s what really astonishes me. These so called Dept of Defense “conservatives” are more in line with Wisconsin union thugs than they are true conservatives.
Well put, Mr. Wright. It takes a special kind of cognitive dissonance to claim to be conservative, while simultaneously defending runaway Federal spending.
I agree, and it takes that same cognitive dissonance to claim to be a conservative and assume that other constitutional conservatives are attacking the Defense sector when we are primarily talking about other bloated government bureaucracies. The way these D o D folks sprinted to jump in the fire with the rest of the gubmint bureaucrats is very telling.
If they were true conservatives, they would understand that defense is the only legit function of government, and therefore other conservatives are not targeting defense when they target bloated government. To me, they have proven themselves to be pro defense liberals.
BTW dinodino, FYI, I started working in DoD under President Reagan.
You and Trebb must be the same person - using different screen names, because your absurd assumptions and self pity and emerging guilt are identical.
And I made NO assumptions, but I did use logic to deduce the mindset that is behind the words you/Trebb used. There is no other way to breakdown what you said. Words mean things, and they reveal a lot. Your words belied a total ignorance of, or antipathy towards, the private sector. Your high horse support of the sequester reinforces this. I doubt you are following what I am saying, because it goes beyond any economic understanding that you have demonstrated it.
If you have economic intelligence beyond what you have demonstrated, perhaps you should demonstate it. To date, you have not.
The country is becoming balkanized on many levels. One of them is the government dependent vs. private sector.
Everybody in the private sector has taken a huge hit the last few years.
Yet listen to the screeching when it is suggested government employees share the burden. Sad to say I don’t see much difference now between the fedgov employee and the obamaphone welfare queen. They are both government dependent and when the chips are down they are all in with Uncle Sugar. You can see it in this very thread.
You are correct, and these people bring it on themselves. Here we were, having a discussion about some meaningful government cuts, and these people sprinted to take bullets we never intended for them, which revealed so much about them.
My entire family is in the private sector! I have one distant cousin who worked in DC for the gov't at one time, otherwise, husband, children, aunts, uncles, cousins all work in the private sector.
I made no assumption about all Feds being lazy, but I will stand by my life long observation that many govt bureaucrats at all levels are lazy. I will also stand by the fact that there’s a lot of entitlement mentality among many govt employees. Many, not all, but you are proving to me that it may be all in fact.
And the fact that you felt “solidarity” with Trebb, the “need” to defend Trebb, like a sick union “brother and sister” socialist mentality indicts you for what you apparently are.
Alissa, regarding your decades of being paid by the taxpayers: do you think that being a Federal employee for twenty-five years is a good thing? I gather that you are proud of that fact.
Sequestration is NOTHING. A 2% cut is not what we need—we need a 20% cut.
An old saying goes, "I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed person". With such as you, it's more apropos to say, "He threw down the gauntlet and accepted the duel, but he never showed up except to send some really nasty letters - kind of cowardly the way he spouts off and never answers a question to explain himself or to indicate he bothered to stop and think. He seems to think that his Donahue act, poking his glasses up his nose as he out-shouts those he disagrees with, makes him a superior type. It's sorry, really - he tells us he has so much potential, but then again so does a can of beans".
I have friends and family in the private sector and even in healthcare which is likely to come back and bite them big time. I gave you a little info about me before and you ignored the challenge because it's so much easier to spout what you feel and act as if you know something. I guess one can't disprove your superior knowledge and intelligence until you actually try to back them up - no danger there.
You apparently don’t have to have any reading comprehension to do what you do....because you have none. You keep ranting and babbling about all this knowledge I don’t have and claim to have, and all I’ve done is analyze your words. Let me repeat, all I’ve done is analyzed your words. Repeat, all I’ve done is analyze your words.
One more time. SLOOOOWWWWLLLYYYY 4 YOU. ALL. I. HAVE. DONE. IS. ANALYZE. YOUR. WORDS.
And FTR, lot of folks on here have agreed with my take on you. You and Alissa have indicted yourselves by rushing to plead guilty to being a government teat sucker when no one on here was really even talking about defense related folks.
You and Ailissa have given us all an education. Now, back to your cubicle and punch your clock.
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