Posted on 11/29/2002 4:51:57 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Probably not,since he just pledged to spend $5+ BILLION on AIDS in Africa and the Carribean,and that's over half of the projected "savings" outlined here.
I just can't wait to see what kind of spin the religious Bush-Bots put on this latest expensive bit of pandering to the Dim base. Sooner or later people will have to wake up and admit that the Dim base IS the Bush base.
The "graying" of the workforce is very true, but I don't think it is limited to government jobs. I can agree that the government must pay competitively or risk not gaining replacement workers for the soon-to-retire folks.
One of the things that the government has offered is a relatively secure position. You've essentially traded peak pay for job security, though it probably didn't seem that way 30 years ago. Of course, if you're good at what you do and in demand, you already have a degree of security plus the pay in the private sector. I agree though, 40% is a wide pay differential. I think somebody is asleep and doesn't care about "brain-drain". It happens to companies as well.
What I'm seeing in our operation is an exodus as well, but not so much to enter the private sector as just to retire. There're, I beleive, a couple of thousand people in our operation that will be retiring in the next 5 years. They will need to be replaced now to allow for training since it takes a couple of years to become proficient in most technical jobs (and that's with some formal schooling).
I can't put this all on Bush - the part of dot-gov he sees in generally in the offices of Washington where there is likely a good deal of waste. Perhaps he needs to have an audit done on all federal jobs to reclassify and/or eliminate/add where needed. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of operations haven't audited their pay v. the private sector in the 30 years you've been there.
I'm not exactly sure where the cut-off between "middle-management" and "upper-management" begins,but I would say a GS-10 is middle-management,and a GS-13 is closing in on upper management. I know I'm going to get flamed for this,but their pay schedules really aren't out of line with the private sector. In fact,a case can be made that the ones in upper-managment are severely underpaid when compared to the salaries of their equals in the civilian work force.
Granted that there are too many "deadwood" and affirmative-action managers doing nothing but occuping office space,but that is a seperate issue.
That and giving the "Gore Tax" to AT&T for the wiring of rural schools...it is still on your AT&T bill under someother guise, never was removed!
I hope this means that the Congress and Senate will not be granted another pay raise also. A promising step by this President and a resounding one for the American people who are not tied to the Federal tit.
I'm in 100% agreement! Providing $5+ BILLION in AIDS funding to pay for "education" and free drugs for those in Africa and Haiti who have AIDS surely DOES qualify as a "national emergency",and it takes a ruler with the vision of Bubba-2 to recogonize this.
Maybe not OUR "nation",but SOMEBODY'S "nation",and THEY are surely having a "emergency". Why should we waste this money on Americans,when we can spend it on foreigners?
Your tax dollars at work.
Borders/smorders! We don't need no stinking borders! What we need are more new houses for these unfortunate minorities,and Bubba-2 has pledged to spend BILLIONS to build them new houses.
Everyone seems to be ignoring this one. 3% is much so significant compared to that.
If private sector jobs pay so much more, get a private sector job. Otherwise, stop whining.
ROFLMAO! Did you forget your sarcasm tag? This is a whole new level of bureaucracy,and will only increase the size of gooberment.
The GS folks are generally GS-13 engineers or statistics pukes making 70 - 80K + benefits. The contractors we hire (because we don't have enough military or GS engineers available) cost the government an average of $180K. Someone hasn't figured out that in 'outsourcing', we still have to pay a competitive salary, benefits - and then an extra pad for the company's profit. IMHO, we would be a lot better off paying for GS people instead of paying TRW or SAIC a fee to hire & pay for contract hire.
Folks can slam the GS people if you want - but in testing military equipment, they are extremely valuable...and cost less than hiring a private corporation!
HorseHillary! Neither is even close to being competent to deliver anything outside a city. When I order stuff,I ALWAYS try to get them to ship it to me using the USPS,because they offer both safer AND quicker service. They also don't leave your stuff out in the rain if you're not home,and they don't require you to stay home ALL DAMN DAY to sign for something that has to be signed for. With the post office,you can just take off and go to your local post office to pick it up on your own schedule. UPS and Fed Ex don't even HAVE local offices. Hell,they don't even really have local phone numbers anymore. The closest UPS office to where I live is 55 miles away,and they have a unlisted number. Even if I could manage to get it,they wouldn't allow me to go there and pick up my package. I know because I've tried.
From what I've seen, there's plenty of graft and corruption (not to mention inefficiency) there to cut costs in half.</I
And every damn bit of it is related to affirmative-action hiring,and fear of EEO complaints. You don't really think the affirmative-action employees will go away if the gooberment closes down the USPS,do you? What they will do is demand UPS and Fed Ex hire them at their old levels,or lose their mail-deliver contracts.
Correction. You could also be a pre-teen male. Nobody else is immature enough to think that anarchy is a viable political system.
Small difference.
Another correction. NO difference.
Bull$%*t. He isn't giving them something they wouldn't have gotten anyhow,and it taking credit for making some kind of cut. Meanwhile,he IS spending BILLIONS to give to Haiti and Africa for AIDS medicine and education.
Typical Bush. Speaks out of both sides of his mouth,as he panders his way to black votes by buying them with tax dollars.
Of course, you pointed out a lot depends on how the contract is written. It could be ours are written poorly.
There is no doubt that the postal unions are dominated by "true believers" Marxists.
(why do you think they need their own police department, to protect them from us or us from them?).
Grow up. Postal inspectors do a excellent job investigating mail fraud and theft. They are a neccessary part of the USPS because it is a nationwide federal organization,and the ONLY things they investigate or make arrests for are crimes related to the US mail.
Well,we ARE going to need a LOT of Spanish-speaking gooberment workers soon,but they don't need no stinking visa!
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