Shipyard workers' families brace for furloughs, smaller paychecks

Seacoastonline ^ | 6 Mar 13 | Laura Dolce

[SkyPilot]

KENNEBUNK, Maine –— Politicians may say the looming federal budget cuts won't hurt very much, but Becky Burritt isn't buying it.

The Kennebunk mother whose husband, Justin, is a civilian employee at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, knows the mandatory furlough days will mean cutting back on everything from eating out to kids' activities.

“We're cutting back, not going out — there will be more home-cooked meals,” the mother of two said as her family faces a loss of nearly $400 and all overtime per biweekly pay period.

Federal civilian workers at the shipyard and throughout the United States will be forced to take 22 days off without pay between April and the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30. The furloughs are part of automatic budget cuts mandated the Budget Control Act of 2011 and known as sequestration. For Burritt, that's just a long name meaning her family will have less. She said the cuts will reduce her family's income by 20 percent and have forced them to think about what's important to them.

“We'll definitely have to dip into savings,” she said. “We're changing our auto insurance to save money and dropping cable. I've asked myself, 'Do I really need cable?'”

The Burritts are just one of hundreds of York County families that depend on income from Portsmouth Naval Shipyard — all of whom are facing six months of cutbacks in salary and loss of overtime due to government inaction.

York County is home to the largest percentage of shipyard workers, with Sanford having the highest number of workers, at more than 400, according to the nonprofit Seacoast Shipyard Association. But with workers throughout the county — including nearly 200 in the Kennebunks, Wells, Ogunquit and Arundel — the pain is likely to be felt throughout.

[SkyPilot]

So which Entitlement is your sacred cow? Pardon me, I was confused by the post.

[SkyPilot]

Just live by your tagline, and everything will be OK.

This helps too:

Psalm 25

[CodeToad]

Probably a lot of blue collar Obama Voters in that crowd. No pity from me as Obama tries to tell them their demise is Repubican caused and they are stupid enough to believe it.

[Kickass Conservative]

>”There's little empathy here for federal employees”<

If I may, that is pure BS. There are no Federal Employees, they are in fact Taxpayer Supported Employees. That includes Obama and his Merry Gang of Stalinists.

People here see a bloated Government that wastes Tax Dollars, the same dollars that the hard working American People sweat and toil to earn day in and day out.

If a Federal Job is necessary, no problem from any FReeper I know of. It's the wasteful spending promoted by the Democrats and the Federal Labor Unions (that even FDR warned against) that makes Conservatives more than a bit cranky.

Don't take the Freeper criticisms of the Federal Leviathan personally. If you are here there is little doubt that you understand the concept of earning your Salary and giving us, your Employers, an honest day's work for an honest day's wage. And yes, I know you are a Taxpayer as well.

[kiryandil]

I bet they have heat too. She shouldn’t have that.

What's "heat"?

[kiryandil]

“We'll definitely have to dip into savings,” she said. “We're changing our auto insurance to save money and dropping cable. I've asked myself, 'Do I really need cable?'”

We dropped cable 8 years ago. Why hand somebody $1500 a year for little of nothing?

[TalBlack]

We have 5 or 6 shipyards and the Chinese have how many HUNDRED? Scares me.

[ducttape45]

Unbelievable.

You are wrong on two fronts.

These people didn’t give a $hit about the rest of us.

Excuse me?!??!? I don't care for my fellow man. HOW DARE YOU MAKE SUCH AN ACCUSATION! Didn't you even bother to read what I posted about my wages and how much this will hurt me personally? I am part of "the rest of us."

You make a blanket statement about the mindset of federal employees that is wrong. People who make such statements are fomenting hatred for those of us who are trying to affect change in how the federal system works.

They continued to vote their own self-interest.

Again, wrong. There are many federal employees who voted against O. The problem is this; there are too many who outvoted those who don't vote for their "own self-interest" and do vote for what's best for the country. Again, a blanket statement made in ignorance.

I hope we have hoards of them in the streets out of work, and the sooner the better for us all!

What an absolutely pathetic thing for someone to hope for. How can you sleep at night knowing what kind of horror you wish upon those who struggle to make ends meet?

Pathetic.

[vette6387]

Like Libloather said, public employees are like ticks on a dog! Sure there may be some who are worried about our country, but that worry is eclipsed by their own self-interest. Just look at the “news” about Los Angeles today! Ninety-one percent of the city’s budget is employee cost. I don’t know of any business that could survive having that kind of an employee burden. Public Employees have been riding the gravy train since the end of WWII, but their “train” has run out of gas ( read other people’s money). If we really took a look at the cost/benefit of what government is “providing,” we would put a huge percentage of them out of their jobs immediately. My comment still stands. I don’t think that the average public employee gives a $hit about those who pay his salary and benefits. He has deluded himself into actually believing that he is important to the rest of us and “deserves” everything that’s been promised him. Hopefully, Detroit under receivership will finally get the changes needed to become viable once again. I am sorry that you have had economic issues, but so have we. I am retired. I provided for my own retirement. I don’t get a pension from anyone. So when the economy “collapsed” (read the greedy bastards in New York screwed us all so their kids could continue to go to private school) we lost 30% of what we had invested for our retirement. At 72, I am not in a position to go back to work like you, so our remaining lives have been permanently altered. So I am just taking the position that you public employees have had all along. “Screw you guys,” I don’t give a $hit whether you have a job or not. You sure as hell didn’t care about what you were doing to me!

[ducttape45]

Why do I even try?

Did you not even read what I typed, or did you just just choose to ignore it?

There are many of us who do care and, again, for you to just throw out a blanket statement like that is insulting, hateful, and ignorant.

People with your attitude are as much of the problem as those who do have the attitude you attribute to me. Wise up man, and learn to realize that many of us are not what you describe.

[SkyPilot]

I don’t give a $hit whether you have a job or not.

vette6387 - do you take Social Security and Medicare?

[sarasmom]

Again you arrogantly ask if someone who has paid into the government ponzi schemes “takes” their retirement benefits.
The ones they have paid for all their adult working lives.

As if they should eschew them, for the betterment of an imported slave class of illegal aliens, or to sacrifice more for for your own personal gain?

You asked me what my “sacred cow” is.
My answer is “integrity”.
That's my “sacred cow”.

A heavy burden you know little about.

[SkyPilot]

Actually I think your sacred cow is Medicare. Did you read that profane rant he sent to duct tape? Really? Read it again. It was one of the most disgusting, deplorable posts I have read in years here. Profile of a bitter person who is accepting not one, but two entitlements that are rapidly bankrupting the nation, and then mocking and berating a veteran who makes low wages and trying to get by. I have news for you, the entitlements he enjoys won't be there for the people who are taxed to heck paying for them now, and yet the “high horse” hypocrisy is in full swing.

[sarasmom]

So no opus yet?

[vette6387]

Your damned right I do! There is absolutely no comparison between these government-mandated “insurance plans” and public sector employee benefits and pensions which are, in most cases paid entirely by the government with taxpayer funds. I wished that I had been able to “opt out” of all of it, because I would have a lot more to spend in my retirement ( even with the trashing of the stock market) if I had had that money to invest rather than having had to give it to the government to squander. I remember the “expressed horror” of the PE unions in New Jersey when Christie made their members pony up something out of their own pockets a year or two ago. Here in California, public employees are currently paying 2% of their pay into their retirement. The cops and the firefighters retire here at 50! We have had two fire chiefs retire in the past three years. One at 51 the other ( his successor) at 50. Their salaries were $188,000 per year their last year. Thanks to “our generosity” the first guy's first year pension was $286,000! He (and his wife) will probably live to at least age 80 (also thanks to our again “generous” health benefits that are fully paid). You do the math about what that will cost the taxpayers. Oh and BTW, the average firefighter who earns about $100,000 per year doubles that with his “overtime” thanks to the union system of calling in sick in order to pump it up. So sorry, I still have no sympathy. That's just a word in the dictionary between $hit and Syphilis

[vette6387]

Don’t know why I am included in your rant. I went completely through all of the posts in this thread and can’t connect what you are saying with anything that I posted.

[SkyPilot]

So no opus yet?

No. You?

[newnhdad]

Note to those in Maine and NH.. keep voting for democrats..

[SkyPilot]

You must think you are sitting on a pretty high horse to be taking two entitlements that are the primary source of this nation's fiscal woes (Social Security and Medicare), and still attempt to justify your shameful attack on another Freeper, who is a veteran of the Armed Forces.

I have "paid into" these Ponzi schemes as well - the difference is you have been one of the very fortunate ones to have been dipping your ladle into the pot for many years now.

And don't bring State employees and their lavish pensions into this debate. That has NOTHING to do with the Sequestration cuts that gut the military (18% of the budget but it must absorb 50% of the cuts).

The reason the nation's military (which is a Constitutional expenditure by they way, unlike your Social Security and Medicare) is under fiscal assault is because of Federal mandatory spending - which consumes 63% of the budget and is exempt from the deep Sequestration cuts. If the cuts were across the board, I am sure people like you would be howling.

I have struggled throughout these threads and this debate to maintain compassion, clarity, and my obedience it Jesus Christ. Your post to ducttape was uncalled for, an personal attack, and profane. It took a lot of restraint to not hit the "abuse" button. However, I have also said some things on this board that I have regretted. You deserve the same courtesy.

[ducttape45]

I appreciate everything you've done here to stand up for what is right, honorable and holy. In threads like this is is nearly impossible to "not" have someone spewing the filth and hatred that many here have expressed.

The outright distain for anyone who works as a federal employee is sickening to see. Folks like those we've been conversing with just don't have a clue to what will happen and how badly we will be hurt by the sequester. They don't see that, as you said, an agency that consumes only 18% of the budget is being ordered to absorb 50% of the cuts, unfairly of course.