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Posted on 10/05/2013 1:50:12 PM PDT by shego
As the fifth day of the federal government shutdown began, members of the House came together in a moment of rare bipartisanship to pass a bill, by a vote of 407 to 0, approving back pay for furloughed government workers....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The only thing or reason regarding how “bi-partisan” the bill is is that the House Dims are being shamed into voting for the GOP bills to overcome the WH obstinance and at least fund what can be agreed on. Let’s see if Harry Reid let’s the Senate vote and pass this one or not. The Senate Dim’s, especially those up for reelection, better help Reid quit stalling for a “comprehensive” and “clean” bill and pass what can be passed on its own.
The GOP elite was wrong. That argument - the GOP is willing to fund the government essentials, including the pre-Obama entitlements and it is the Dims who want an all or nothing bill - IS a winning argument NOW.
There's so much misinformation running around here it isn't even funny. Here's some facts.
ALL Federal workers are on furlough, meaning they are not being paid at this time. This is both "essential" and "non-essential" employees.
Essential employees are reporting to work and doing their jobs. They are not being paid as of right now.
This bill simply says that those employees who were required to come to work during the shutdown will be paid for their work when the shutdown is over. Non-essential employees will not be paid, since they didn't work. They may have the option of using their leave time (since they had already earned that before the shutdown) but I haven't seen anything concrete about that.
The TSA, unless they count groping little old ladies as something.
Most folks, when they hear the word “furlough,” understand that to be those who are not working.
And few expect that those who work will not be paid.
If you are correct, that those who are not working will not be paid, that is news to me, and I stand corrected.
Ditto what you said. I’m working with a fair number of such folks. I had to decide who got furloughed and who didn’t a few days ago.
BTW, I just saw on Twitter that the Senate killed this bill.
Arsehole Reid won’t take this one up either! What an asshat!
This paragraph in the article seems to run counter to your assertion:
“Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid supports the measure, but said Saturday that if furloughed workers are guaranteed back pay, there’s no reason to keep them out of work.”
If they’re working, they’re hardly “out of work,” are they?
I have said nothing about “contract priests.” Are you a big government “conservative?”? Nor have I complained about memorials being closed though am a bit cynical there because the continuing costs of closure are higher than keeping them open. More logical would be their being abandoned by the Federal Government and turned over to some private group to maintain. The ocean has been closed, not the beaches in the cited instance. Why are you inventing all this crap to attribute to me? Have you nothing to argue with and need to invent stuff for argument’s sake?
I have no pet projects. Everything the government does that is not specified in the Constitution should be shut down. Now. That includes my and everyone else’s Social Security. It is unConstitutional.
You did not refute this observation for "nonessential" employees. This is bringing the liberals out of the closet on FR. The ones who worry about the non-essentials and their livelihood are purely big government proponents and, practically speaking, liberals and totalists.
Then why are they not working? No work, no pay. Obama, send them back to work, now!
Why exactly do we have unnecessary non-essential people working for us???
Through the many shutdowns the nonessentials have all been paid after it is over. That is unfortunate and ultimately supports big government and runaway spending. If they are "nonessential" then they are nonessential and should simply be remanded to the private sector immediately, perhaps with a small severance sum.
Half are DoD civilians and a huge number perform vital functions that support military readiness. Many of those positions were created during the Clinton downsizing as they shrunk the military but had to retain vital functions (while trying to hide that fact).
For example, maintenance of technical or unique weapons systems for the national guard or reserve.
Those soldiers obviously don’t do it themselves since they only work one weekend a month.
Who does it? Who keeps them ready for rapid deployment?
DoD civilians....federal civilians.
More importantly here, EV, is this observation: the democrats just agreed to funding this separately...although after the fact.
What other areas could that same strategy be employed? Let’s post-dated-check fund some other areas that they’re bellyachin’ about.
For example, post-date fund the parks. Then we can run them with the assurance that the IOU is already paid.
That’s what I thought as well.
Reid is here not quite correct because with the CR or budget not passed, theoretically there is no money allocated to pay them. Better they be just terminated along with the jobs they do.
Right. My understanding is that the contractors are not being paid. Also, the National Guard troops whose drills have been cancelled this month are not being paid. I know that one for a fact. My son is one of those trying to figure out how all the bills are going to get paid this month.
You think we and the Constitutional system we putatively have need these workers?
You bet.
So is my son.
The drill pay is probably lost as was the “furlough” workers were forced to undergo this summer.
However, what if a post-dated check were written for the lost drills, also. The justification is that those troops told not to come to drill were also told that they’re still liable for muster.
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