Posted on 01/19/2019 4:22:54 AM PST by Zakeet
The federal government shutdown has presented a unique opportunity for President Donald Trump to clear out the deadwood in the federal bureaucracy, saving U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars in salaries, perks, and rented office space for people who aren't doing anything productive.
[Snip]
A high-ranking Trump administration official wrote four days ago in the Daily Caller that the shutdown enables Trump to get rid of people like this. As members of the Senior Executive Service, many of them can't be fired unless they're convicted of a felony, or of committing some flagrant misconduct.
... SES employees cannot be furloughed (laid off) under normal circumstances, but they can be removed during a Reduction in Force (RIF) when their positions are found to be unnecessary.
In the D.C. article, our unnamed administration official explains that roughly 80% of the federal work force in many departments, including his own, simply don't do anything. They plan shopping trips and vacations. They send out résumés for better-paying positions, perhaps without realizing that any new employer might expect them to actually get some work done.
[Snip]
... on Day 30 of the shutdown, a clause is triggered in these federal employment contracts that enables RIF. The Office of Personnel Management oversees the RIF process.
... Roughly 800,000 federal employees could be permanently removed under this plan, with an annual savings of roughly $80 billion in salaries alone. Including the pensions; the government vehicles; and the rented office space, furniture, and equipment, it could be $150 billion.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Get it done
Make it happen, Mr. President.
MAGA!
You didn’t answer my question.
As my brother said, “If they’re non-essential employees, what are they doing on the payroll to begin with?”
I know I’m beating my head against the wall on this forum, but...
There is widespread misunderstanding of who gets furloughed and why. These are people whose functions are not directly involved in public safety. It doesn’t mean their functions are not needed.
Example, entire HR departments are furloughed, but that is clearly an essential function for any business.
Individuals can be nonessential; I’ve worked with several. But that’s not what this is.
But I still hold to the gist of the comment, which is that the Federal government consumes vast quantities of resources on items that don't directly affect most of the rest of us on a day to day basis. Even worse, when that Federal employee is at work, in many cases it's producing regulations that strangle or levy fees on the rest of us.
Their are obviously positions that should be funded, such as air-traffic controllers. But why isn't the TSA simply shut down permanently?
You are correct. Postal employees were not included in that 2 million. Though it is an OPM number. Finding a sensible defined count was a chore. One count took it up to almost 14 million!
As far as efficiency, I maintain that all government entities should eliminate at least one complete layer of organization and two layers of management. And I mean rip them out, eliminating the positions. The bloat adds no value and is counterproductive.
Such is the nature of government bureaucracy. That’s one reason why we should keep the government beast at the edge of starvation.
But it’s like shouting in a hurricane.
Yep years ago a coworker said the only way to prevent government growth is to limit the money. In the small organization I’m in we have 2 leaders in case one is deployed which has never happened. We have 5 admin people doing what 2 use to do and at higher grades. We have 4 Jr officers and I have no idea what they do. We have a virtual platoon of environmental types finding ways to prevent work getting done. I was told our HQs has 600 people by visiting HQ types, which explains all the meaningless data requests I get. I’m embarrassed to tell what their 5 day trip was about. I could have provided the info and sent it to them. Of course they’ll be visiting several other bases. Somebody referred to it as Operation Enduring Per Diem. The amount of money we waste is just staggering.
You’ve got to be kidding.
“Operation Enduring Per Diem” is the most accurate description I've ever seen!
Did you have career status in the competitive service?
Like it, but make it 5000 jobs!
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