Posted on 01/17/2017 6:49:57 AM PST by Enlightened1
Making good on a promise to slash government, President-elect Trump has asked his incoming team to pursue spending and staffing cuts.
Insiders said that the spending reductions in some departments could go as high as 10 percent and staff cuts to 20 percent, numbers that would rock Washington if he follows through.
At least two so-called "landing teams" in Cabinet agencies have relayed the call for cuts as part of their marching orders to shrink the flab in government.
The cuts would target discretionary spending, not mandated programs such as Medicare or Social Security, the sources said.
The spending reductions are expected to be used to help pay for Trump's plan to boost the Pentagon's budget, tax cuts and some pet projects, potentially including the anti-immigration wall on the nation's southern border.
The teams also are looking at staffing cuts over four years through attrition, a hiring freeze and reorganization.
The plan is winning cheers in conservative, anti-tax and anti-spending corners in Washington that have long sought massive cuts in the bureaucracy.
Presidents rarely cut spending, choosing freezes instead. In the meantime, federal spending has reached historic levels. Trump has picked a budget hawk, Rep. Mick Mulvaney, to head the Office of Management and Budget, a clear sign that spending cuts are a top priority.
Still, Trump is likely to face a wall of opposition from Democrats and federal unions who consider much of the federal workforce on their side.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
How will they survive? OH NOES!
you mean non-working.........
Make your own damn lunch...tuna, bologna, pb&j....is that so hard??
You can’t make America great again without popping the leeches off the taxpayers’ necks. Go Trump!
Sure, we could raise a big pot of change if we eliminated federal highway spending while keeping the federal gasoline tax in place, and putting the receipts into the general fund. Let the states pick up the slack. We can trim some chump change at USDA, but most of USDA's budget is food stamps, and that's an entitlement. We could walk away from NASA; Obama already killed the manned space program, so we could content ourselves with bumming rides from the Russians and save enough money to finance a few weeks of the expected growth in Medicare and Medicaid spending. But you are simply not going to find enough money in these areas to make the slightest difference if entitlements aren't reined in.
I agree with you in principle.
But I think President Trump has to pick his targets very carefully, since he can be sure that a firestorm of resistance will launched by the media, the Democrats and the RINOs. IMHO, President Trump cannot afford to “lose” many of these fights.
For example, those entities now claim that the Federal Elections Commission failed America in the last election. OK, then! Shrink it! Eliminate its power to meddle in state and local elections! Consider if that commission needs to exist at all!
And so forth...
I hope this happens...Trump also needs to target the pension system of federal workers
I hope this happens...Trump also needs to target the pension system of federal workers
Trump Administration should triple these figures....
Federal Unions, Government Unions are illegal.....Regan proved that much.
GO TRUMP GO!! -— DRAIN IT and POUR DRAIN-O down the Drain!!
“The teams also are looking at staffing cuts over four years through attrition, a hiring freeze and reorganization.”
NO! I am a babyboomer, and I want it RIGHT NOW! :-)
“If people fear for their jobs they will perform better.”
Maybe true, but for a government worker, that might be a 1% improvement. Dump ‘em!
I wish we could impose REAL Roman decimation on federal workers in certain agencies. Start with the EPA/IRS/ATF:
LOL! Dilbert is the BEST!!
It needs to be done! Anything less is what got us into this mess to begin with.
The nice thing about real layoffs, is that under civil service seniority rules, the last hired would be the most vulnerable.
So everybody hired during the Obama administration could potentially be eliminated.
To make this necessary reduction in government popular it needs to get the support of taxpayers: Make it tangible
For every 100 million in savings, provide electronic tax credits to people who can add them up throughout the year and use them the following year on their taxes.
I agree, but it will take amazing courage and power. I’m concerned that there is nobody with that combination.
And, truth be told, if someone DOES have that much courage and power, I start worrying about revelation unfolding before us.
If the Average American worker doesn’t get Retirement monies in their Paycheck neither should Federal Employees.
Case Closed.
You realize that the first thing these guys did was meet behind closed doors and vote to restore earmarks right? Trump shamed them publicly and they backed down but it will come back.
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