Posted on 11/22/2016 3:57:27 AM PST by Libloather
Donald Trump and his Republican allies are 'ready to slash the federal work force, impose hiring freezes and halt automatic pay raises'
If President-elect Donald Trump and his Republican colleagues in Congress have their way, government employees will be easier to fire and they will have their pensions reduced, aides and lawmakers say.
The incoming administration and its allies on Capitol Hill are planning to try and trim the public sector work force, in line with campaign promises to roll back government benefits, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
With Republicans in control of both houses of the legislature as well as the executive branch, they now have a chance to enact reforms which federal employees once thought they were immune from, including lower pensions, hiring freezes, a halt to automatic raises, and a crackdown on publicly funded union business.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Good, good and more good!
There are many Freepers who work for the federal government who are hard working decent people. To wish that people lose their livelihood just because they work for Uncle Sam is cruel.
It’s also cruel to demand that private sector taxpayers fork over ever more taxes to keep the government beast fed to its satisfaction.
Fewer folks complaining when the Democraticks shut down the gubmint!
We be the Weebees.
We be here when you come. We be here when you go.
They will reduce, if they reduce at all, through attrition and buy-outs.
Maybe. However, federal government workers earn substantially more in salary and benefits than those with equivalent jobs in the private sector. Years back, it was just the opposite. People still worked for the government for reasons of pensions and job stability. That equivalence needs to be restored.
LOL. Big risk for Trump.
He just lost the 2016 D.C. vote by D:92.8% to R:4.1%.
This could easily go to D:98% R:2% if he carries out this radical plan.
Do it Donald. We can take the “D.C. Hit”.
Attrition alone would make a huge difference.
I’ve a feeling that most of the FReepers who work for the federal government actually work in agencies that have useful and needed functions.
If the Department of Education were cut or eliminated, how many FReepers do you think that would affect?
When you hear Democrats talk about job growth they mean hiring more government workers not the private sector.
Most government workers live in the burbs.
I worked for the feds for 30 years. Reagan imposed a hiring freeze that lasted about 10 years. People who retired, resigned, died or left for other reasons, couldn’t be replaced by new people, their positions had to be filled from within. There was a dramatic drop in the number of employees, and it did increase the workload on each employee. That was not really a bad deal, when applying for promotions, we didn’t have to compete with outsiders, plus with all the work to be done, no one was ever fired unless the were really really bad. Reagan also did not give us our yearly Cost of Living raise for about 4 years.
Retired Fed here. Fortunately, my pension is locked in. But I do wonder whether they’ll change the pension formula for future new hires.
That's true. I just couldn't resist the opportunity to post the D.C. data.
“I’ve a feeling that most of the FReepers who work for the federal government actually work in agencies that have useful and needed functions.
If the Department of Education were cut or eliminated, how many FReepers do you think that would affect?”
I couldn’t care less. Given the state of “education” in this country, their “Department” is either ineffectual or part of the problem - not the solution.
In fact, one can say that about the government in general.
Actually they may have between 9/11 and 2007 due to ramping up for war on terror, but they don't now. The two studies that showed they did failed to adjust for education. The majority of the federal workforce has BSc or higher. In the DoD agency I worked at the MINIMUM education required for hire has always been a MSc in a hard science with required credits in math and hard science (engineering, physics, or math). The DoD RDT&E community has contracted out the low education jobs, so almost all the jobs are professional degrees (MSc, PhD, J.D.). Here is a CBO chart from 2005-2010 showing the comparison then; in reality the wage freeze since 2010 has hurt government scientists and engineers much worse than the private sector (based on salary and benefits among private contractors vs. government). It is true that blue collar jobs pay better, but there are very few of them, and they are specialized labor (e.g. fabrication, test range workers).
I’d like to see them forget even the “penny plan” and go for the “nickel plan”, at least!
It seems to me that they've already wrung the blood out of that turnip. The Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) was put into place back in 1985 (or so) and replaced The Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) for all new hires after that point. FERS consists of Social Security plus a Thrift Savings Plan with matching contributions up to 5%. About the same as any retirement plan in industry these days.
The number of CSRS employees left in government has dwindled pretty far and all of them are now retirement age or retired. After working for 35 plus years for a pension it would be unfair (even criminal) to change it on them at the last minute when they can no longer plan for it.
That is why FERS was implemented as it was, to give the employee a chance to plan. New hires were given 40 years to plan for retirement.
The Civil Service Retirement System that we knew and loved hasn’t existed for a number of years. Now, most of those I know who are still in the Fed workforce say that they won’t be able to retire until they are 66, and the even younger employees won’t be able to retire until 67, since their pension is now linked to Social Security.
It wouldn’t surprise me any if there was a reduction in the amount of matching funds that the government provides to current workers who invest in the Thrift Savings Plan. My son now works for the Feds, so he’ll keep me posted on any changes they make.
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