Getting a 20% pay cut because of "that dystopian sack of monkey pus commonly known as The Ryan Budget, the economic plan without actual economics devised by Paul Ryan, the most recent First Runner-up in the American vice-presidential pageant and longtime zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin"?
No pay raises for 4 years?
No non-monetary awards of any kind?
Bills not getting any smaller in the mean time?
NO PROBLEM!
BTW, if you like to drop the "Zombie Eyed Granny Starver" a note, (something I plan on doing when I am on my furlough days) expressing your disapproval for his stupid ideas and for the sequester in general, his address is:
Representative Paul Ryan ( Worthless Sack of Shit-WI)
1233 Longworth HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
That's funny. Didn't Obama vote for Sequester? In fact, I thought it was his idea in the first place because he knew he could count on petty selfish idiots to overlook that it was his idea in the first place and be irked at the GOP when he pulled the trigger himself.
Clearly you were not paying attention. The sequester was never supposed to happen. Because it is so bad, Congress was supposed to pass a budget deal. Only assholes like Rysn loved tax cuts for rich people so much they killed the deal. The blame lies , as ut always does with Congress.
So I see you saying it was Obama's idea and he signed it but its all the GOP's fault. Funny how your mind sees things.
I like the cartoon. I never quite figured staff officers out and I was one but all my staff time was in the Gulf or California. My attitude towards all last minute data calls was, sure, in the morning I'll get right on that. I never stayed late to staff anything except TLAM strikes due out by end of next day. I didn't play the staff game my peers in and around Norfolk did. If they forced a 20% pay cut on me guaranteed there'd be a 20% impact on delivery and/or quality. When I worked for the contractor though we did work for bucks and we stayed late for those irritating RFP due in 5 days kind of business as usual with DOD. Now in Academe they get to RFP by working their butts off(not) in the 9 months they're allowed to prepare them. Unbelievable difference working NSF non DOD contracts.
Curtis,
The problem is- we are having two different conversations. We’re not debating whether to implement more austerity; we’re debating over how much austerity to implement. When its already proven factually that the austerity policies advocated by the Ryans of the world are holding back the pace of any recovery. Furthermore, doing furloughs simply prolongs the pain, especially since we will be right back here next year. It would be better to do a RIF and fully fund the positions that are left. A position such as mine is already undervalued in terms of salary since all of us doing what we do here, have very unique skill sets. That was fine so long as it was off set by the ability to travel and to live overseas. Take away those things, however and its time to move on. I am sick to death of being told that I am not working hard. I know I am and I am doing a professional job at what I do.
But there has been no austerity. None at all. Not one single motherfucking loser in a government department or program looked around and said, 'yep, I got some people here who don't have any work and I'm eliminating the position.' Not one single position at any level. You're right though. There is a simple solution for people who think they are not getting enough pay–leave. Funny how the government unions treat the matter. They won't work, won't leave and riot if fired. They also retire on $455,000/year pensions that I have to pay for.
It all boils down to the "fuzzy math" that many government organizations use. I know of cases where to show a reduction in costs, they eliminage billets that are currently not filled, but they have been using the money that is associated with that billet for years for other funding.
Same thing goes for other governmental organizations for example the DEA. They had mentioned in one of those huge Congressional reports that they can elimiate up to $20 million by closing one of thier fusion intel centers by Sep of 2012. But, that actual center had been closed earlier in the year. So where was the money that was supposedly going to that fusion center going?
I am sure you are well aware of many a wasteful program in the government that can be reformed to save money. The thing that will get me most upset is when later this summer, when they announce that we need to do a mad "spending spree" to get rid of the money that we have cut back on for this FY. Where we will be forced to buy things that we probably don't need, but need to show that we have spent the money. We will of course stock up on office supplies and much needed stuff, but the fact that we have missed training opportunites and other things that really needed to be done, including being laid off for days just shows that refoms need to be made.
My suggestion and many made fun of Romney when he said it, is to run the government like a private business. In regards to spending. If an organization can show a savings of money for a FY, let them keep that money (up to a point, I understand that you don't want organization to build up their own trust fund), but let them be able to use that money for up to at least 2 FY's. That way when cuts are requied, the good organization that practices fiscal constraints like regular people do will be able to survive.
But I guess that makes too much sense.
So the DOD builds a 34 million dolllar building in Helmand province that the marines do not need OR want. Congress's mandates buliding MORE M1 tanks that DOD does not want, THOUSANDS OF MRAPS that are being left behind or put into storage. Buying helicopters for the afghans that they cannot fly or maintain from a Russian company because afghans have experiençe with the Mi8
You know,I like dr carter, of the DOD as I have heard him testify about procurement policies etc. but somebody has got to get the DOD budget under control. Someone that can buck congress, the brass and the contractors. And do the right thing by the military AND thè taxpayer.
to mauri?es point, when I was in the Peacecorps Sargent Shrive was in charge Dan he had money left over in his budget and wanted to return it to the tap ayers and he was told by his colleagues that one NEVER goes under budget and Always spends EVERY cent they are given.
how can one fight against such perfidy?
Curtis, you are clearly overexaggeratting about pensions-and other things. But the simple truth is that DOD is not cutting back on what it does. It is making its cuts on the back of its employees-and things like travel and ancillary items. We need to have the authority to reprogram money and cut stupid things, like LCS. You also are presuming it is easy to get another job in today's economy. I have noticed people with secure positions in life tend to do that-I have no such illusions.
About pensions, no, not really. That was from the paper that day about the chancellor of a failed town university here that is losing its accreditation this year who will make $455,000 when she retires at the end of the year.
The simple truth you fail to grasp is that the money isn't there and the policies of the government are largely to blame for that. It has nothing to do with letting government funding reflect the reality that they are borrowing more than a trillion $ a year to keep drones in drone jobs and let them attend diversity training on my $.
You don't get to goon up the system, declare it impossible or unreasonable to fix, insist that we continue to pour $ into bloated budgets for nothing and tell me that it the rethuglicans fault. It's governments fault and its the fault of people who think government exists for the purpose of giving them travel $ to haul their balls from country to country and get paid doing it.
We could literally scrap every single office, billet and duty in all of Europe and not miss it. I expect our efforts there to do america are as effective as they are in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt and France. Not bring it home. Just scrap it in place.
You will forgive me if I disagree with you. 🙂
Plus the money is there-to manage the budget in a more reasonable fashion. There are 4 very straightforward and less painful things we can do to keep the train running AND put the government on a road to deficit reduction:
1) Kill all the Bush tax cuts.
2) Lift the SS cap.
3) Withdraw from AFG now-and reap the savings in OMN.
4) Make prudent cuts-and also invest in infrastructure at home, by reducing staffs and retrenching abroad.
5) Restructure corporate taxes and make off-shore folks pay their fair share.
Skippy,
To your point #5, GE didn't pay any taxes last year. Due to the tax code they may have paid but got it back. Internet companines like Google (whose owners get to use a hangar at a former NAS for their personal plane), and Microsoft and other companies who were all big supporters of the Dems in the recent elections didn't pay their "fair share" of taxes either.
In regards to pensions, there was a county in your adopted state that had to default on the pensions a few years ago. Simply put, they ran out of money and filed for municipal bankruptcy, and they got out of paying the pensions to the people who were retired. You will start to see a lot of that in places like CA, where the highest paid person in the CALPERS retirement system is making up to $600k a year in retirement pay. How on earth can a state government employee (who was only a prison dentist) make that much in retirement alone for the rest of their life on the backs of the CA taxpayers, is one reason why I hope to never get sent back to CA, even though I could enjoy living in San Diego.
Same with the military pensions, which I am a receiver of myself. Why do you think the push is to get rid of the 20 year retirement plan? The government can't keep paying us the amounts we receive, even though unlike CA, they can at least print more money.
I disagree with you about military pensions-or for that matter pensions in general. The money is there-its out in the economy, just poorly distributed. When cretins like Tilton of United Airlines can walk away from their pension obligations to employees-and pocket 40 million dollars personally in the process, I know the resources are available. Its a question of priorities.
About my adopted state ( a fact I really hate-because Alabama in general, just sucks the big one) here's an example: Look up how much the Alabama football coach makes and compare it to that of people who actually do something useful.
Tilton stole from shareholders. The Alabama coach and prison dentist and hundreds of thousands like them are stealing from us. We object. The only way left to object is to cut the money. So be it.
Tilton did not steal from shareholders-he stole from his employees. Which is just what Congress is doing to us. And like the United Board of directors-we have a Congress that is making bad choices. Even worse they are , as James Fallows points out: "
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