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As sequestration nears, federal workers brace for furloughs, vent anger at politicians
McClatchy Newspapers ^ | February 28, 2013 | By Lindsay Wise

Posted on 02/28/2013 9:54:37 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee

WASHINGTON — As a single dad with seven kids living at home, Bill Blevins is used to pinching every penny.

The 48-year-old building engineer at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing hasn’t had a cost-of-living pay raise in more than two years, even as his rent and insurance premiums went up. Now he and other federal workers in Washington and across the country are bracing for possible unpaid furloughs as part of an $85 billion reduction in federal spending. Known as sequestration, the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts are scheduled to kick in unless Congress and the White House can reach a compromise by Friday.

snip______________________________________

“I am a registered Republican. However, I blame the Republican Party for this,” said Gregory Russell, a 48-year-old federal firefighter at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Russell calculates he’d lose about $1,200 a month – about 20 percent of his pay – if he gets furloughed. . .

(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...


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To: All

My wife was in line for the bus at Ft. Fumble (the Pentagon) and the people in civies were approached and asked about how they will deal with the sequester.. It was someone with a White House jacket on with the credentials hanging on a lanyard. Since they have to announce themselves if they’re with the media she and her busmates assumed it was someone from the regime trolling for victims.

Oh, and the sun has come up so Obama and the democrats must be pissed.


41 posted on 03/01/2013 3:56:03 AM PST by newnhdad (Our new motto: USA, it was fun while it lasted.)
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To: SkyPilot
If you cant cut $80 Billion form $2.5 Trillion then nothing can be cut.

So if we cave on this then it is over. This is war and 0'bastard is corrupt to the core. Deal with it.

42 posted on 03/01/2013 3:57:19 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: SkyPilot

you do realize that is is only a 2% cut of all spending and it’s the president and his regime who decided where the cuts would come from. Carville even said that they cut where it would hurt the most people so they could get the most mileage from it. The democrats are punishing your friend, not freepers.
We feel bad for these people but the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of the prezzy. The folks here are just tired of being beat-up every few days while there is a class of people in our country that seem to get away unscathed. The federal government has to be cut and the prezzy decided to take it out on the only area he wants to cut, defense and border security.
We will be praying for those that are less fortunate.


43 posted on 03/01/2013 4:06:11 AM PST by newnhdad (Our new motto: USA, it was fun while it lasted.)
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To: napscoordinator

Precisely. We do our side no good when we make stuff up. Stick to facts:they’re damning enough.

tC


44 posted on 03/01/2013 4:12:40 AM PST by Pentagon Leatherneck
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Isn’t it interesting that you can find this ‘republican’ is a phony put-up job with a little internet sleuthing, but the MSM can’t be bothered to check. I suppose because it serves their interest; which is being the propaganda arm for leftists.


45 posted on 03/01/2013 4:13:34 AM PST by Flick Lives (We're going to be just like the old Soviet Union, but with free cell phones!)
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To: SkyPilot

Nice description. Did she vote? Do you happen to know who she voted for?
If it was Obama, I have no sympathy. If not, I am very sorry for her.


46 posted on 03/01/2013 4:30:37 AM PST by Gadsden1st
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To: Brad from Tennessee
Sure, he's a registered Republican. I've been a registered Democrat since I was old enough to vote. I thought it would be clever to vote for really stupid people in the Dem primaries. I've never ever voted Dem in a real election. But it sure is tons of fun messing with the Dem pollsters and campaign fundraisers! That's all this guy Gregory Russell is doing.

He's fakin' it for the attention and the media whores can't get enough. After all, there is nothing sweeter for a lib than blaming their messes on a Republican!


47 posted on 03/01/2013 4:33:20 AM PST by Casie (democrats destroy)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

to quote officer john mclane ( of the die hard series )....

“Welcome to the party pal”..


48 posted on 03/01/2013 4:41:11 AM PST by joe fonebone (The clueless... they walk among us, and they vote...)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

uh, I guess that is Marylands version of a “Republican”?
Probably voted for lilMarty O’Malley too

Maybe the furlough will reduce his policial contributions to rat politicians so he can continue to feed his kids hot dogs


49 posted on 03/01/2013 4:42:52 AM PST by silverleaf (Age Takes a Toll: Please Have Exact Change)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Given that most Federal workers are involved in anti tenth amendment activities, I can’t feel too sorry for them.


50 posted on 03/01/2013 4:45:14 AM PST by freedomfiter2 (Brutal acts of commission and yawning acts of omission both strengthen the hand of the devil.)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
What's left unsaid so far in this whole stinking sequestration mess (at least I haven't heard it said!) is that any of this so called "pain" that may be felt has at its root the simple fact that the FedGov has expanded so far beyond its Constitutional limits over many decades that it has created whole industries, towns/counties, and massive groups of the population that have become totally dependent on its continual growth.

And to mask this effect over time FedGov has been borrowing and creating massive amounts of $$$ that simply make the long-term problem even worse. Simple logic dictates that the over-spending has to stop. It needs to be pared back each and every year for the foreseeable future. The "pain" and dislocation has to happen, if we can't adjust to a small decrease in the amount of growth, we're done. (What this implies is that we can't even cut the rate of GROWTH to zero, in which FedGov would spend the same amount in a FY that it did in the prior FY. Think about that, you've got to first be able to get to zero growth before you even begin to do any actual "cutting." )

There is no other viable option; but it doesn't look like the country as a whole is anywhere near being able to accept this cold hard fact.

51 posted on 03/01/2013 4:46:28 AM PST by zzeeman ("We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality.")
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To: tiki
"no one ever says “I’m a Dumbocrat and I’m mad at the president.”

Actually, a lot of them do say that. It's just that those quotes somehow never make it into the news.

52 posted on 03/01/2013 4:49:20 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (Galileo: In science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of one individual)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

If another worker is 100% laid off, Russell and four others don’t have to have a furlough. I have a modest proposal for Mister Russell: You pick which co-worker to lay off so you don’t have to do a furlough. Your partner Bill? How about that guy who rides shotgun for the Rescue truck? Driver for the ladder truck? Maybe you’d like to volunteer for layoff yourself so the others don’t have to furlough.

No, Mr. Russell would rather whine about the evil Rethuglicans. I wonder waht his handle is on DU?


53 posted on 03/01/2013 4:53:07 AM PST by Cyber Liberty (I am a dissident. Will you join me? My name is John....)
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To: SkyPilot

Amen

Just look at what obama has done to us, turning us against each other. We are a house divided.

Turning anger at what he and the democrat party are doing to ruin this country, against an entire federal workforce of decent people who get up and go to work everyday and try to maintain pride in their professional roles. Beth is the norm, not the exception.

We too looking at a 20% pay cut, just gonna suck it up and try to enjoy the extra time off finding free and cheap stuff to do with the kids


54 posted on 03/01/2013 4:53:36 AM PST by silverleaf (Age Takes a Toll: Please Have Exact Change)
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To: newnhdad
actually a bill was voted down yesterday that would have given obama expanded authority to use his discretion about where the budget cuts occur

ie, saltmarsh mouse studies could be defunded so teachers could keep their jobs

However, part of Congress voted it down because obama said he would veto it - the magic potus refuses to leave fingerprints on any decision about where and what to cut.

The sequester was crafted by zerO’s advisors to be so bad, so heavily weighted against DoD, they assumed the GOP would roll over and never let it go into effect

The other part of Congress voted yesterday's bill down giving Barry more power because they figured instead of forcing the man-child to do his job, he would just abuse it

55 posted on 03/01/2013 5:01:55 AM PST by silverleaf (Age Takes a Toll: Please Have Exact Change)
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To: silverleaf

In 2011 I and everybody else where I worked took a 20% pay cut, all bonuses eliminated, and 2 others had to be laid off. Those that stayed didn’t get to take that one day off. But that was solved the next year for me with a 100% reduction in work days and a 100% cut in pay, i.e. layoff, along with three others from the small firm I was working for.

Now having said that, my daughter works for the DoD, and and is getting a 20% cut in pay and furlough. But she was on a 4 day work week anyway, does she only work 3 days now and then 2 hours on her fourth day?


56 posted on 03/01/2013 5:03:05 AM PST by machman
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To: silverleaf

It is now up to the House to tell the president what must be cut in very specific line item language. It is easy to do, everybody knows where waste and unnecessary spending resides.

Let the House pass the very specific bill and then have the Senate reject it. That is the ir constitutional function. All this Fox News supported transfer talk fails to trealize just who is in control. It is the House.


57 posted on 03/01/2013 5:10:11 AM PST by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 .....The fairest Deduction to be reduced is the Standard Deduction)
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To: machman

she should be getting a briefing on how her furlough will be handled

If she is working 4 10-hour days then I imagine her hours will be cut to 7.5 hours a day (30 hour week) to match her reduced pay. At least she is not paying $4 a gallon gas to commute

Good luck to her!


58 posted on 03/01/2013 5:10:58 AM PST by silverleaf (Age Takes a Toll: Please Have Exact Change)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
hasn't had a cost-of-living pay raise in more than two years

No mention of the step increases, merit raises and/or promotions. The reporter picked her words carefully. If he had received NO raises at all, you can bet she would have said that.

59 posted on 03/01/2013 5:21:39 AM PST by tnlibertarian
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To: bert
Disagree, it is not up to “the House” (Boehner) to manage total budgetary
spending reductions, program by program, within a narrow window of discretionary spending...which I believe is only about 20% of the entire “budget”, or less. This leaves 80%of the "budget" (entitlements) untouchable- how does THAT get us out of the hole?

I say “budget” because there is no “budget”

Remember, the Senate has not exercised its role, and has not sent the House a budget for over 3 years.

This is why Boehner keeps saying the Senate needs to do its J-O-B before the House can do its J-O-B instead of making everything up as they go along.

This issue is way beyond a couple of Congressmen trying to make backroom deals at midnight while the adhd narcissist manchild plays golf and abuses Air Force One traveling on a perpetual campaign/vacation lifestyle

60 posted on 03/01/2013 5:21:39 AM PST by silverleaf (Age Takes a Toll: Please Have Exact Change)
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