Posted on 01/03/2019 5:48:52 PM PST by Kaslin
President Donald Trump is freezing pay for civilian federal workers, cancelling their automatic 2.1 percent raise for 2019. Disregard the howls from union bosses and Democratic politicians. It's the right decision.
Federal workers already collect bigger salaries, on average, than private sector workers doing comparable jobs, and they get benefit packages a whopping 47 percent more expensive, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Not to mention up to 49 paid days off a year. And they never lose a night's sleep over getting canned. Firing them, no matter how outrageous their misconduct, is almost impossible.
Then at age 55, if they've put in 30 years, they get a gold-plated retirement package almost unheard of in the private sector, including defined benefits that protect them from inflation.
In short, federal employees are riding the gravy train, and the rest of us working stiffs who pay taxes to support the federal government are being taken for a ride.
No wonder Trump's applying the brakes. In his 2018 State of the Union, Trump promised to "reward good workers," who are the vast majority, and "remove federal employees who undermine the public trust."
In May, Trump issued executive orders making it easier to fire workers for poor performance or misconduct. Under the old rules, a problem employee has to be given up to 120 days to show improvement. Then, after being terminated, the employee can appeal to several different entities, dragging the appeals process out for eight months on average. Trump's rules shorten the performance improvement period to 30 days and streamline the appeals process. In short, ending the federal employee protection racket.
It's about time. Office of Personnel Management data indicate that a minuscule half of 1 percent of federal workers get terminated each year, one-fifth the firing rate in the private sector.
Nice for the sluggards on Uncle Sam's payroll but not for their conscientious co-workers. More than half of federal workers approve of Trump's changes, according to a June poll. After all, they have to pick up the slack from these bad apples and perhaps see them promoted regardless of their inferior performances.
Trump's executive orders also bar federal employees from spending more than 25 percent of their hours on union business. Right now, some employees spend 100 percent of their time on union tasks such as termination appeals. The rule change is estimated to save taxpayers $100 million a year.
Who's against these changes? The public sector unions, natch, who rushed to court to challenge them. In August, federal District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson struck down the changes, ruling they had to be decided by collective bargaining, not the president. Trump's Justice Department is taking the fight to a higher court.
Likewise, public sector unions are trying to stop reform of Veterans Affairs, where a scandal erupted in 2014, when it was uncovered that employees doctored patient waiting lists. Vets on the phony waitlists died waiting for care.
In 2017, Congress enacted the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, to cut some of the red tape involved in firing and disciplining wrongdoers. But even these improvements are being held up by union-driven litigation. A typical case is Jeffrey Sayers, head of pharmacy for the Los Angeles area VA, who was terminated for mishandling prescription drugs. Sayers is suing for back pay and reinstatement, claiming he was fired too fast.
Trump's ability to protect ailing vets and get taxpayers' their money's worth in every department of government depends on winning the battle to restore merit-based management in the federal bureaucracy.
When the civil service was created in 1883 with the Pendleton Act, merit was supposed to replace the partisan spoils system. But now merit is gone. Scramble the letters and what you've got is the "timer" system: Workers put in their time, get hefty salaries and huge benefits, regardless of their work quality, and skate to retirement. Not exactly the time-honored ideal of the "civil servant."
Public employees pay taxes. Yes, they are also paid out of taxes, but they are paid for work - which they give. Or should.
I spent 25 years in the military. I deployed far more times than I could count. I trained. I buried coworkers who died while training. And I was paid. For my service.
You cannot say public employees are a drain on the GDP without accounting for the work done in exchange for their salaries.
I strongly support reforms to make it vastly easier to FIRE public employees who do NOT work. I encountered my share of GS-13s during my military career who seemed to pride themselves on how little they did since they knew they could not be fired. THAT is evil and I’d love to see firing a public employee become simple.
But many public employees DO work. Not just the military. That some do not is evil, but do not pretend that no public employee works! My first job was manual labor for the US Forest Service and I worked by tail off! Minimum wage and I would collapse from exhaustion when I crawled home. That was 40+ years ago and I’m sure the USFS has changed. But there is still work being done.
Looks like one of the first things that needs to be gotten rid of is the public sector unions. The taxpayers who pay them should have some say in this; not some union. Pres. Trump is on the right path. Another thing that is disgusting & should be cause for immediate dismissal is elected officials who betray their oath of office & don’t uphold the Constitution. If we wanted to live elsewhere with a different kind of legal system, we could move there. American was founded for Americans.
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I haven’t had an increase in years yet they are on an indefinite paid vacation.
Trump needs to double what he's demanding for the WALL - maybe if the government stays shut down for a few years some of these folks might get jobs in the private sector. And yeah, I know they'll get 'back pay' but it would be worth it to have them leave.
Agree!
And, let’s start cleaning up the welfare rolls, as well.
NO WELFARE TO THOSE HERE ILLEGALLY!!
Since Pennsylvania usually has split government (GOP legislature, Democrat governor for all but four of the last 20 years), budget showdowns are common.
Not too many years ago, they decided to close things down to "punish" our area for electing (mostly) GOP legislators. The locals got together and decided they would keep it open with volunteers to do the jobs the government employees used to do. Not only did it work, it worked so well that similar operations took notice.
Pretty dense amigo. You (maybe), I and every other taxpayer from the private sector pays the CA state tax.
If Trump keeps the government shut down for a year or two those folks will walk away on their own... it’s gonna be a win no matter what happens... Trump should double what he’s asking for ... we don’t want dems giving in too quickly.
Trump is simply magnificent. He’s doing everthing we ask! Just too good!!
I don’t expect everyone will understand this fact.
Nancy Pelosi can disagree with facts, but facts are facts, and stubborn things.
Our gov’t has been deficit spending since Alexander Hamilton arranged for us to borrow (how much? class? Buehler?) from the Dutch to jump start a system he planned to lead to centralized banking (Aaron Burr shot him ten years too late, IMHO).
Gov’t, as evidenced by the method’s established by our founders is broke. It creates NO wealth, no value, no GDP.
Everything gov’t holds/owns is from taxes - duties, tariffs - which should in a sane and non corrupted world, go to pay for exactly what’s outlined in our constitution: national security, military and the post office - “general welfare” notwithstanding.
Gov’t doesn’t “invest.” It takes from creators and gives to buy votes and to pay salaries of gov’t employees who ARE a net drain on the GDP.
NO gov’t employee can pay tax if they are paid BY taxes. That W4 they get is a lie.
There is no more fundamental a fact than this.
Not sorry if you don’t get it.
I too was a public education and media victim.
“NO gov’t employee can pay tax if they are paid BY taxes. That W4 they get is a lie.
There is no more fundamental a fact than this.”
What YOU don’t seem to get is that the government employees - many of them - do WORK in exchange for cash. You cannot ignore the work performed and then call them a drain on GDP. YOu might as well claim private employees are a drain on their business. If true, the business would fire them. But while they are an EXPENSE, the WORK they do creates value.
You can argue, if you wish, that private business ought to run the military or defend the borders or regulate business, but you cannot ignore the work done to say public employees are a drain on the country’s economy.
Why does a private company accept the “drain” on their resources caused by paying employees? Hmmm? Because you cannot run a business without the people to do the work...
Seriously.
I typed that as slowly as I could in the hopes it might sink in.
COMPANIES create GDP value.
GOV’T SPENDS GDP value.
“The work” still costs something, which gov’t doesn’t create, it TAXES.
There. I typed even slower.
Don’t bother replying, it’ll only serve to plumb the depths of your paltry knowledge of economic reality.
“GOV’T SPENDS GDP value.”
Really? What would the GDP be if there was no military? What would it be if there were no police? What would the GDP be if there was no Air Traffic Control, or highways? Or if every road was a private toll road?
What would the GDP be if everyone had to send their kids to private schools, or had the option of not giving them ANY education?
What would the GDP be if there was no regulation of imports? How would unregulated rights to pollute affect the health of workers? And affect health care costs? What would happen to the GDP if we immediately stopped all Social Security payments? All Medicare? All food stamps?
What would the GDP be if there was no government at all?
You assume the government workers provide ZERO value to the economy. That is false.
“COMPANIES create GDP value.”
They create value in an environment that include government regulation of their competitors, government provision for the injured, disabled and old, government that provides at least SOME education to every person, etc.
I do not adore government. I’d love to see several departments in the US government go away. Entirely. But you cannot assume all government is a net loss on GDP. I spent time in Afghanistan where it is every man for himself. Their GDP sucks donkey dicks, in part because “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”
That is chaos, and business does not thrive in chaos.
He can start by firing the “essential” TSA employees who have called in sick since the shutdown.
This fake story came from the same CNN correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, who was screaming senselessly at Trump after his Rose Garden appearance yesterday.
Four years out of college and she’s already two years in as WH correspondent? Shifting there after entertainment reporting experience at the Daily Caller—talk about going native in Washington!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaitlan_Collins
I was an IT contractor managing a team. The govie we worked for had to approve all of our code version upgrades to production. He had taped cardboard to the top of his cubicle to shield him from the overhead lights. From his arrival at work, to going home, he slept at his desk. It was my job to wake him to approve our work.
A high percentage of government workers spend almost half their time watching porn - are you sure he was sleeping the whole time?
Where we worked, that wouldn’t have made it past the firewalls.
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