Posted on 12/30/2012 10:27:43 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
WASHINGTON—The Pentagon is preparing to notify its entire civilian workforce to prepare for furloughs if Congress and President Barack Obama are unable to reach a deal before Jan. 2 to avert automatic spending cuts.
A senior defense official said Sunday that the Pentagon would notify 800,000 civilian workers to brace for furloughs in the new year, meaning the workers would be ordered to take mandatory leave without pay for a certain period. The warning is much gloomier than the agency recently offered employees, as it had said there wouldn't be an immediate impact on personnel or operations if a deal wasn't reached by January
The automatic spending cuts were put in place by the 2011 Budget Control Act and require $110 billion in spending reductions, split between defense programs and other domestic agencies. The cuts must take place in the first nine months of 2013, and then $110 billion in cuts will take place for eight additional years, under the conditions of the 2011 law. Democrats and Republicans have been working to replace or postpone the cuts but they have been unable to reach an agreement.
The Pentagon will be forced to cut $55 billion in spending in the first nine months of 2013, a roughly 10% reduction in many of its programs. The cuts would affect more than just the agency's workforce, as the White House has said the military's budgets for purchasing aircraft, ammunition, missiles and other items will be cut sharply.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
With baseline budgeting thats like a spending freeze.... meanwhile Obama has expanded their mission to Africa
Layoff the whole federal government , also the EPA, FEC ,FDA, OFCCP, etc. , permanently
Don’t give in GOP, go over the media’s stupid cliff
I am very concerned about the potential cuts to weapon systems, not so much about the civilian workforce.
there are way too many pencil pushing civilians clogging the cogs of the U.S. military. getting rid of many of these positions would be a very good thing. I know this first hand.
We have 800,000 civilian government employees in the Department of Defense. How many of them have gone to Iraq or Afghanistan for a year or three out of five years? The Military-Industrial Complex isn’t uniformed personnel. Take her off the cliff, boys!
I want to see it go over so bad I can taste it.
This should REALLY drive the “Fun With Numbers Friday” numbers down. I already see a huge drop in those applying for unemployment. The unemployment rate will probably drop below 4% once these 800,000 are let go. Da conomy be boomin’.
Layoff those bureaucrats in the EPA, FCC, FDA, FEC,OFCCP, HUD and so on ,and on , . So long cretins. Then we'd have freedom .Don’t give in GOP, go over the media’s stupid cliff, best thing that could happen
Layoff the whole federal government , also the EPA, FEC ,FDA, OFCCP, etc. , permanently
In 2009, the company I worked for lost 2 major customers resulting in a 25% pay cuts for many of us.
Guess what? We survived and learned to get by with less pay.
I am not so confident that federal employees(most but not all) have the ability to financially cope without a Government check specifically because most(not all) federal employees are clueless regarding the basic economic fundamentals.
I agree.
Yeah me too. We should call our GOP congressmen, tell them
to hold the line, don’t give in , go over the media’s stupid cliff
This will also affect Defense Contractors. I am looking at my 3 rd layoff in 3 1/2 years.
Yeah me too. We should call our GOP congressmen, tell them
to hold the line, don’t give in , go over the media’s stupid cliff
To all :
Call Congress (202-224-2131)
When a ‘company’ can take an 800,000 cut in the workforce and still carry out basic functions, that tells me there are 800,000too many people working for it.
Radical idea, I know....
Every federal worker is begging for this to happen as they will eventually get reimbursed and therefore these will all be paid days off.
Its just like the supposed pay freeze. Sure, they freeze the pay...but then make it up by giving bigger and bigger “bonuses”. Now, after getting huge bonuses this year, Obama is giving a pay raise. Does anyone really think they will have to give the bonus back?
Call Congress (202-224-2131)
“I want to see it go over so bad I can taste it.”
Thank you for saying what I’ve been thinking!
You and I both. I called Roskam’s office twice last week. I told him the following:
No tax increases on anyone.
Serious across the board spending cuts.
Dump Boehner as Speaker.
Just pass a 3 year extension of the current Obama tax rates and adjourn.
L
You left out the IRS.
And no these people aren’t “hard working Americans” They are scum of the earth working for their master. I despise every last one of those cretins with every ounce of my soul.
Unfortunately ... you're right.
More unemployed (mostly) white guys...what could go wrong?
Call Congress (202-224-2131)
They are making a cliff out of a molehill. It is high time to go over it and a whole lot more. Bring it on.
Welcome to ObaMurica
Make no mistake, 0bama is looking to further weaken our military to reduce our influence on the world stage. It’s all about destroying our superpower status. 0bama is on a kill mission, domestically and abroad. He’s bolstering those aligned with him domestically (unions and federal agencies working to deconstruct our free-market, capitalist Republic) while undermining America’s superpower status.
Nothing like getting ready in advance (i.e., they did NO PLANNING AT ALL, until now).
Everything done by the administration from this to the publishing of tax withholding tables has been based on the assumption that the REPUBLICANS will cave.
But the law is the law, and Obama should have followed it. The law says the defense cuts start Tuesday and taxes go up, starting Tuesday. They have flouted the law because they were so sure the the Republicans would cave...
They should be prosecuted just for that.
Take that 800,000 and multiply it by say a conservative salary figure (lets say 35,000 $ per year/annually), not counting all the medical/benefits.
And we have ____________________________
And that’s just one bureaucracy.
It is interesting that the Dems keep hitting us with these Defense cuts, when Defense cuts has been their motto FOR DECADES.
If the Democrats were BEING HONEST they would be telling us how great these cuts are, because the “Pentagon Budget” (as they call it) is so bloated.
Bottom line - The Democrats are in ABJECT FEAR of the cuts, they have promised EVERYONE not to worry and that the Republicans would fold, but they still haven’t folded?
Thanks for voting and supporting Obama - now get the Hell out. :D
DoD buddy of mine asked several months back his supervisor on when management will inform the workers to prepare if the fiscal cliff does happen. He was surprise to find out that DoD forbid their agency heads to prepare for a fiscal cliff because it has not officially occur. Managers were absolutely forbidden to discuss this matter with their workers or face DoD legal action against them. Part of the reasoning is any unofficial preparation of workers may spook contractors that something will happen. The other unofficial rumor reason is that Obama did not want to affect his re election efforts. The bottom line is furlough will hit the DoD workforce snd many of the workers will be surprise because they assume everything is OK from the silence of their management. Any DoD freepers out there, get out the popcorn and watch the show. Wonder how the non DoD workers will react when entitlement programs take a hit. DoD workers are not the only ones who will suffer cutbacks.
“He was surprise to find out that DoD forbid their agency heads to prepare for a fiscal cliff because it has not officially occur. “
So forget the cliff. If defense spending were to be cut by, say, 20% next year in a budget approved by Congress and signed by the president - he’s saying that DOD would do NOTHING at all in anticipation of the lower budget, prior to October 1 - nothing, like lowering the rate of buying new hardware, in advance? Of course not...in fact they place orders YEARS IN ADVANCE. Were they placing orders based on funds that were NEVER BUDGETED?
My point is that the Cliff spending level is the law of the land, passed by Congress and signed by the President - and yet they were told it wasn’t real. Like I say, CRIMINAL CHARGES need to be filed here.
My first assignment was to Fort Knox. I had pay problems, so I went to the finance office. It was 90% civilian. We turned in a tank for a scheduled rebuild. It went to The Boatwright Maintenance Facility. It was 95% civilian. I realized that 90+% of the “good” permanent jobs at Fort Knox were held by civilians. I started to look into it. They weren’t paid less than the Soldiers. They weren’t doing jobs that were beyond the Soldier’s capabilities. But, they lived there. The Soldiers would move every couple of years. The civilian workers had bought homes and were staying there. They were residents. They voted for the local politicians. I finally realized that the “good” jobs were taken by civilian government employees as a reward. Vote Democrat, and be rewarded.
We need to close 200 military bases world wide . I could care less about these cuts. Why do we have troops in Japan,Germany? What a joke. Bring them home and put them on the Mexican border. And no damned AMNESTY!!
I believe this “edge of the fiscal cliff” crap is a sham to the inth degree.
I can see the headlines now, “Obama saves the nation, averting fiscal cliff disaster”.
Just feels like a facade.
It would make him the center of attention right at New Year’s, and could serve as an alter to set the agenda for the next year - which he could then harp on at the State of the Union address.
“In 2009,the company I worked for lost 2 major customers resulting in a 25% pay cuts for many of us.
Guess what? We survived and learned to get by with less pay.”
Did your company have defense contracts or commercial contracts?
I remember well the massive layoffs in 1989-1992 in SoCal.
If the GOP want to loose big, then go over the cliff.
Sean,
Do you remember the massive layoffs in 1989-1992 in the l.a. area?
It was brutal... every major defense contractor was cutting jobs.
Lurker, Gaffer, Diana in Wisconsin
Are any of y’all working for companies with defense contracts?
If so, what are your prospects for next year?
There are 800,000 government civilians.
If you run into three government employees on an average military post, on average one is a civil servant and the other two are military.
That does not yet include the hoards of contractors.
This is insane.
The vast majority of the of the DOD personnel cuts since the late 1980s have been to the uniformed active duty side.
The civilians primarily operate in an administrative capacity. It is administration which has seen the most automation as a result of the information revolution of the last 30 years. Yet the DOD still carries such a significant level of administrative overhead.
The uniformed services require some level of overhead, because of the risk associated with warfare. There has to be a designated deputy in case the leader is killed or injured. This level of redundancy no longer exists in the private sector. Nor does every first level manager have a an administrative assistant (i.e., secretary) any more. In most cases you need to be a manager of managers of managers to warrant an administrative assistant.
But the government is different.
Actually the plan is another behind closed doors meeting, just like in the 2008 Bailout Babies collateral fraud, and the code speak “bi-partisan” (so called “banks”...anti-Glass Steigal scammers, “insurance” non-insurance i.e “investors”, and Federal workers retirement pensions), and buy time until they can pass it off (collateral transformation) by Extortion-Care, on everybody else but them.
Remember what happened in the end to Mussolini, just to name one dictator....it could happen to YOU, and you know who I mean.
The way they throw that 800,000 jobs number around sounds deceiving. They don’t say how many would be affected at any one particular time. They make it sound like 800K people are going to be thrown out of work. That’s not what a “rolling furlough” is like.
I work in the private sector, and a few years ago everybody in my company had to take a week’s unpaid furlough every quarter for a year. If I have had to do it, then I have no sympathy for the civilian employees of the military.
BobL wrote:
“If defense spending were to be cut by,say,20% next year in a budget approved by Congress and signed by the president - he’s saying that DOD would do NOTHING at all in anticipation of the lower budget,prior to October 1 - nothing,like lowering the rate of buying new hardware,in advance? Of course not...in fact they place orders YEARS IN ADVANCE. Were they placing orders based on funds that were NEVER BUDGETED?”
Questions to BobL and fee:
The company i work for has a contract for x Widgets to be sold to xx branch of the military, it goes to the end of 2013.
Does the DoD expect sudden cuts/cancellation of the project?
Multiply that by however many programs..... and its 1989-1992 all over again.... or will it be that bad?
I was in an industry dependent on Government contracts but I retired last January 1. The unit I ran currently has about 12 months of paid backlog.
If the cliff hits and they have to curtail entitlements and Social Security, etc., then I’ll not get my SS payment.
Regardless of this, I’ll have to make do without, because I’d still rather see this government live within its means like the rest of us have to do. We cannot survive in a country where half the people are on some sort of welfare and likely don’t get up before noon.
Heck, I’m clueless. I’m just pointing out that people working in government are required to follow the law, and the law includes projected spending based on what’s been passed by Congress.
In this case, they are IGNORING the law (understandingly) expecting the Republicans to cave - but still breaking the law.
What’s so great about going over “the cliff”?
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