DoD Civilian Furloughs and Job Cuts Loom

Military dot com ^ | 10 May 13 | Richard Sisk

[SkyPilot]

With furloughs looming, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter this week paid tribute to the job done by the Pentagon's civilian work force while warning that there soon would be fewer of them doing it.

In a series of appearances that fell during Public Service Recognition Week, Carter said the department had yet to come to a decision on how many furlough days to impose to meet the budget-cutting demands of the Congressional sequester process in the current fiscal year.

Carter called the across-the-board sequester cuts "stupid," and said they would result in the loss of five to six percent of DOD's civilian personnel if continued through future fiscal years.

"What is tragic in all this, this damage to readiness and national security, is that it is not a result of economic emergency or recession in this country -- it's purely a collateral damage of political gridlock," Carter said at the National Press Club.

Carter gave no guidance on the more immediate issue of furloughs. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has yet to reach a decision, Carter said, "but if we have to impose them, it will harm morale and productivity throughout most of our support functions, and this will in turn further hurt readiness."

In February, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned that nearly 800,000 civilian DOD workers would have to be furloughed for up to 22 days under the nearly $40 billion in cuts from sequester.

[Conserev1]

Cut their asses! What are you defending!? you can’t even defend an embassy with a full militaay complement!
Why do I need 800,000 paper pushers!

[DuncanWaring]

How about furloughing some “Amish” parasites?

[Gator113]

Cry me a river.

We are under attack by the enemies within and we know that you failures are not going to do a damn thing about it.

[SkyPilot]

Cut their asses!

Not all of them are "paper pushers." Sheesh, talk about a generalization and a lack of knowledge of what the DoD does.

The medical staff that worked on me when I had an eye injury that I incurred while overseas were all DoD civilian, and I will never forget them. Many of those kind of people are still getting furloughed.

So are shipyard workers, maintainers of aircraft, engineers, and cops.

They perform a Constitutional and complex mission alongside the military that is a lot more important than the other useless Federal agencies, most of whom are NOT furloughing (State Dept, Dept of Education, Housing and Urban Development, because the military takes the great majority of the Sequester cuts (thanks to our GOP masters for agreeing to that one).

There is waste, like any other organization, but there is helluva lotta good these people do. Forty four percent of DoD civilians are veterans themselves; and the gratitude of American people towards the military these days is in the sewer.

[SkyPilot]

you can’t even defend an embassy with a full militaay complement!

Oh, by the way, it was the military that tried to defend those people and were stopped cold by our cowardly politicians, and it was military veterans who died trying.

[SkyPilot]

We are under attack by the enemies within and we know that you failures are not going to do a damn thing about it.

That's right, it's the fault of the Defense Department that Democrats are in charge of the White House and the Senate.

[Conserev1]

That was not a slam to our beloved Military! Or anyone in harms way!
They never had the chance!
Thanks for the slam!

[Myrddin]

I work for private company. My DoD contract ended before a new contract was awarded. The proposal has been in process for over 18 months. The consequence is no money to pay for my services. I returned home last Friday. Living on vacation accrued because I never take time off. There may not be a functioning contract again until mid-July. I'm not a "DoD civilian" aka government employee doing work for the DoD part of the government. It would be nice if it was only 14 "furlough days". I'm going to eat 40 to 50 earned vacation days. That time off is accrued at the rate of 7.68 hours per 80 hours worked. It's going to take a long time to replace it.

[Conserev1]

I guess we gonna furlough all of them ! Is there no definition of Key personal in the DOD not to Slam you but there is not 800,000 needed to be key personell! sorry I don’t buy it!
Also the Gov is so short sighted that all must be furloughed @ once and cannot be staggered! All I’m saying is this is another ploy to make Rebublicans look bad when Obama himself initialized the Sequester!

[Conserev1]

We have 10 million people out of work drawing disability now!
The average tax base is 100 dollars per week thats 100million a week lost because of unemployed workers drawing a check!
Sucking tax money, how about the ones unemployed without disability!
I would be conservative and say another 100 mil a week because this administration cannot deem it necessary to fuel small business but take from them at every corner!
200 million a week lost for almost 4 years now on the low end!
It’s not rocket science kids! 800k a drop in the bucket!

[SkyPilot]

I am sorry to hear what you are going through. It is shameful that we hand out Food Stamp EBT cards to 1 in 5 households but people who contribute to this nation’s military are held in contempt.

[SkyPilot]

I agree with your outrage that we have almost 11 million people on Social Security Disability now, but those direct deposit checks to people not working are EXEMPT from Sequestration, as are Food Stamps and almost all Entitlements, including TANF welfare and ObamaCare. So we have 63% of spending exempt from Sequestration, with the other 37% of discretionary spending absorbing 100% of the cuts. The formula the Republicans agreed to with the 2011 Budget Control Act that gave us this abortion levies 50% of all cuts on the military despite it being only 17% of the overall budget, and it is the one Federal agency that has done the most dying, the most wounded, and has endured the greatest sacrifices to their personal lives and the lives of their families than ANY other group of Americans. Period.

You see, the Takers are doing just fine during Sequestration. It is the working man who gets out of bed to labor at a Navy Yard, making about $30K a year who will get his pay cut 20%, while "Da Fud Stamp" crowd gets not one less nickel. Did know that if you qualify for even $1 of home heating assistance under the revised rules, then you automatically qualify for Food Stamps? It's true.

You seem like a good patriot, but your outrage should not be focused on people who are themselves working, paying taxes, and raising families while the thug Taker class skates by.

[Conserev1]

I have no outrage against the federal worker! I’m sure they have a job to do. The out rage is using the Federal worker as a pawn to drive the Obummer agenda! How can I feel for a Fed worker that has a furlough when the average American has suffered no work foreclosure and loss of home and dreams!
I cannot see the whine over a furlough when you will be back at work when the Fairway kings fit is over and done with!
He chose to spend 14 trillion dollars and palce the country in a spin and still talks about Bush! Sorry Kiddo just doesn’t wash! I live with friends on $300 a month rent from my house and get by. So Gov does not affect me!

[RetiredTexasVet]

Better start cutting those Executive Level civilian bonuses,
Air Force 1 (park it and let His Arrogance and kin go commercial) and eliminate all conference travel (can be performed by using the on-site video conferencing facilities). And then all the “low level” civilian employees won’t have to be laid off.

[3Fingas]

This is stupid and will accomplish nothing to reduce our deficit. Of all the government programs to cut, Obama chooses to cut work hours in the DOD. These furloughs are entirely political designed to cause maximum pain and return minimum gain. I can come up with 10 government spending cuts that would have greater lasting effect and will not compromise any essential activities. One of the easiest measures to do would be to implement a flat rate tax and to get rid of the IRS. That would generate more revenue in the long run and eliminate nearly 80,000 permanent employees of the Federal government. Those would be permanent savings to the government and would not compromise our national security in any way. The people running our government are criminally stupid.

[USNBandit]

The 22 days first planned for DoD employees is a critical number. If they hit 23 days in one calendar year, it triggers an automatic RIF procedure.

[SkyPilot]

Why is it that 23 days automatically triggers a reduction in force?

We are in a very, very precarious state in this nation, and 99.9% of the American people are unaware or they do not care.

17 Air Force wings are no longer combat ready due to Sequestration. 80% of Army Brigade Combat Teams are going untrained and are also no longer combat ready. The Navy cannot afford to pay to put some cruisers and subs into depot maintenance and they are no longer combat ready.

Wars are "come as you are" these days.

Even in 1940, we were gearing up after decades of foolish military "austerity." Today, the world is getting more dangerous and we are chopping the military off at the knees while out Bread and Circuses are spending exponentially.

Don't look to the GOP for help. With the exception of a few House and Senate members, the GOP has abandoned the military.

Acceptance of Defense Cuts Signals Shift in G.O.P. Focus

How the GOP Learned to Love Defense Cuts

[SkyPilot]

This is stupid and will accomplish nothing to reduce our deficit. Of all the government programs to cut, Obama chooses to cut work hours in the DOD.

That is a true statement. Sequestration does nothing to address the real cause of debt and deficits - Entitlement spending. Yet, neither party has little political will to address the real problem.

I agree with a flat tax. If enacted, along with Entitlement reform, we would be well on our way to reducing deficits AND the GOP could become the party of Growth again, instead of trying to sell itself as the party of "Sequestration Austerity."

This abortion of a concept is cowardly, and it is harming our national defense.

Budget cuts hurting Army readiness, top officer says

Every single member of the Joint Staff is screaming the same warning, yet it is ignored by Congress. The service chiefs have even been accused of "lying" about the cuts! Even here on this forum!

We expect Obama the Homosexual Communist to ignore the warning - that is what he is. The Republicans should be getting off their duffs to stand and fight, but they are not.

[pepsionice]

Lets put this all in context. The big guys were amazed that Congress and the President didn’t react and fix all of this. So they’ve cut to the bone, and basically agreed to the furlough business, and done this all as viewing it as a one-time only situation.

By October, they will figure out that 2014 is the same game. At this point, knowing neither the President or Congress will fix it....they will agree to RIF people....probably two percent....maybe even four percent. So as miserable as 2013 seems....2014, I think, will be even more negative.