Trump and his Republican allies are 'ready to slash the federal work force, impose hiring freezes...

Daily Mail ^ | 11/22/16 | Ariel Zilber

[Libloather]

Donald Trump and his Republican allies are 'ready to slash the federal work force, impose hiring freezes and halt automatic pay raises'

If President-elect Donald Trump and his Republican colleagues in Congress have their way, government employees will be easier to fire and they will have their pensions reduced, aides and lawmakers say.

The incoming administration and its allies on Capitol Hill are planning to try and trim the public sector work force, in line with campaign promises to roll back government benefits, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

With Republicans in control of both houses of the legislature as well as the executive branch, they now have a chance to enact reforms which federal employees once thought they were immune from, including lower pensions, hiring freezes, a halt to automatic raises, and a crackdown on publicly funded union business.

[LambSlave]

SInce DoD has had hiring freezes in effect, we actually have cut our government workforce in my organization by ~20%. The difference was made up by contractors and temporary workers, since the workload has increased during this time. The temps have MSc's and PhD's, and get low pay and no benefits. The contractors cost us more than the full time government employees. The answer is to cut departments and agencies, or reduce missions, then make sure to not leave work-arounds or we will just hire contractors or temp-terms.

For example, if the Abrams tank program wants to upgrade their main gun or ammo. They need someone to do a study to show the impact of a new long range gun so they can get Congress to pay for the upgrade, or it won't happen. If the program has the money to do it, they will do it. They will pay an Army analytic agency to do the work for the study; since the money is there it could be used for contractors, temps or to pay full time. If the study says it is a worthwhile investment, they will design, test, fabricate and integrate. Again, the money is there, and someone will get paid to do the work be it government, temporary, or contractor. The only way this changes is if you say no upgrades for anyone.

Trump is talking about building more ships and tanks but cutting workforce; this is not possible unless you cut the fat in other areas or permit us to fire bad employees.

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[Londo Molari]

I’m a fed worker — there is a lot of dead wood in the government because you can’t fire people. Too many “protected classes” (LGBT, race) as well as some former military folks who claim disability but have never seen a battlefield. (I’m not talking about the ones who are truly disabled). I worked with this one woman who was “disabled” — she never showed up for work and then would claim PTSD if confronted — BUT SHE NEVER WAS IN COMBAT OR IN AN AOR! She was stationed CONUS.
It is frustrating to the folks that really care and do a good job to support our soldiers — you get the same pay and benefits as most of the slugs. Then you get the added benefit of being “punished by performance”, as you get more work piled on you because you care and the slug won’t do it. So, hopefully Trump’s administration will make it easier to get rid of the deadwood — it will do a lot for morale of the good workers and save money for the taxpayers!

[T Ruth]

crackdown on publicly funded union business.

Rescind JFK's executive order and get rid of federal unions altogether.

[Londo Molari]

Another thing that would help immeasurably would be acquisition reform. There is so much red tape to be able to purchase or develop anything. Half of the acquisition workforce’s job is figuring out how to navigate the tons of regulations and acquisition rules. It makes it very difficult to get things out to the users.

[combat_boots]

Dow went >19,000 just now.

Pop the cork!

[norwaypinesavage]

"You said significantly, the difference is marginal between educated workers even in this data set"

I didn't say that, at all.

What I said was: "federal government workers earn substantially more in salary and benefits than those with equivalent jobs in the private sector". You have provided NO data that refutes that.

[G Larry]

Every regulator is motivated to make themselves indispensable and create an empire to validate their existence.

Throw out all the non-value added and counter-productive rules of the last 10 years and shut down the offices that wrote and enforced them.

First, it saves Billions in tax dollars.
Second, it opens the door add TRILLIONS in productive work and the associated tax base.

[GOPJ]

Firing everyone in the EPA would be a good start...

[ridesthemiles]

Reagan also did not give us our yearly Cost of Living raise for about 4 years.”””

Here’s a news flash for youall:

Obama has raised Soc Sec by a whopping >3 percent this coming year.

That is $3 on a Thousand dollars.

I will get a whopping $36 more next year—IF I live the entire year—and that does NOT cover my COL.

My state has been giving driver;s licenses to illegals. MY auto insurance has gone up $35 a MONTH & my last accident was Oct of 1966 & I haven’t changed vehicles since April 1986.

Giving Fed employees a COL raise when they are already impossible to lay off or fire is an insult to the rest of the USA.

I am sure that there are some good Fed employees—however, I strongly believe there are TOO many of them overall & I would advocate to close some of the Cabinet positions. IF these people are so talented, they will be able to find jobs in the private sector. However—those who have spent a significant number of years in PUBLIC employment can be totally contaminated with their ‘perks’ and the employer demands.

[CodeToad]

“There are many Freepers who work for the federal government who are hard working decent people.”

Unfortunately, they work for an indecent federal government usurping powers the US Constitution never gave them.

[Jumper]

That is not always true. When I went to the Federal Government in the IT sector it was at 1/3 of what I was offered in Raleigh-Durham-Triage back in 1999. I never made up the difference. At the Dept of State, any single aspect of my responsibilities would have made more in systems, networking, Communications, Telephone, Radio. Sometimes a government employee is a great deal for the tax payer - when you replace those employees with contractors the bill doubles easily, and it takes more at end of year. However, there are too many folks in the Federal Government.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Good, good and good.

[Help!]

Even if all Trump does is replace the Judges on the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB) with more conservative individuals, that would help a lot. Back when I was an ER Specialist, I probably fired at least one poor employee per week in a workforce of about 800 (VA hospital). Some we pretty much knew we would fire when we hired them: due to veterans preference rules we had no choice but to hire (i.e., person was pretty obviously alcoholic but was a “disabled veteran” so we couldn’t hire anyone else unless we hired them). But it’s my understanding that the MSPB judges are now way more employee friendly.

[ducttape45]

Hey, I won't deny the federal government has become bloated and needs to be scaled back in many areas, but to "throw the baby out with the bathwater" is a bit much.

I'm just a lowly admin clerk struggling to make ends meet and to see the vitriol on this website for anyone associated with the federal government is a bit hard to take, especially when I agree with a lot of the sentiment that is expressed.

So when the idea of parring back the government workplace is floated, don't forget to put a human face on it and realize that not all of us who work for the government are overpaid cockroaches feeding off the tax payers.

[ducttape45]

However, federal government workers earn substantially more in salary and benefits than those with equivalent jobs in the private sector. Years back, it was just the opposite.

I'll disagree with you there. Take for instance a civil engineer. As a GS-09 they can get paid $49,000 - $57,000 base salary. A civil engineer in the civil sector easily gets paid twice that amount, many times three times that amount.

People still worked for the government for reasons of pensions and job stability. That equivalence needs to be restored.

I won't deny there are abuses in this category. I know people who are drawing money from the government in three different way; a military retirement, a civil service pension, and working part-time for the that same government service. That kind of abuse needs to be dealt with, and harshly.

But then there are those of us who will be lucky to draw any kind of decent pension when we reach 62 years of age now. I'll probably be working until I drop.

So yes, while there are abuses, there are many of us who will likely never see a decent pension when we are eligible for retirement.

[ducttape45]

I’ve a feeling that most of the FReepers who work for the federal government actually work in agencies that have useful and needed functions.

Thank you, I love you!

If the Department of Education were cut or eliminated, how many FReepers do you think that would affect?

Department of Education is one agency that needs to be closed down. How many Freepers will that affect? I have no idea. I'm sure there are many good people who work for that agency. But that is indeed one department that works against the will of the people and is not needed.

[LambSlave]

You said substantially, same thing. Anyway, the only recent data is not from the CBO, but it says for the last three years federal salaries have lagged private by ~35% . This also does not count total compensation, but its what we have.

[sarge83]

Exactly, no new hires unless it is a mission critical position, and then promote internally and don’t back fill that emptied position.

Throw in a major civil service reform with some teeth for incompetence and criminal activity and you can rein in the hidden fourth branch of government. It has to be done now because they have too much on the rank and file Republicans and Democrats. They know where the skeletons are buried, with Trump they can’t play that game. It has to be done now.

[John O]

I thiknk the real key is getting the fedgov reigned back into it’s constitutional constraints. If it’s not Authorized by Article 1 Section 8 then the fed gov does not need to be doing it.

(And oddly enough, most of the “liberal” type workers just happen to work in those unconstitutional agencies.)