Keep in mind that the 800,000 federal workers affected by the shutdown have so far missed a grand total of one paycheck, which would have arrived five days ago.
There’s no doubt that this is challenging for many workers, particularly those who don’t budget their money well. But Congress has already guaranteed they will be made whole once the shutdown ends.
This is an inconvenience, not a hardship.
Government Shutdown: Pampered Federal Workers Don’t Deserve Anyone’s Pity
I have a Facebook friend who went into a rant about the buddies celebrating the Shutdown and that we should know that those furloughed include people working for the security of the Nation. There is a point made there, but also we know there is probably 3 times more people who are not essential to the nation other than picking up a check so they are not on welfare.
There are over 2 million Federal workers not including those in the postal service. Out of that many, even the wasteful Federal Government considers 800,000 unessential enough to be sent home. According to the own guidelines of the Federal Government, 40% of its workforce is non-essential. Think about that.That is bad business practice in the private sector and any CEO keeping that many people sucking company income, would be taken to the desert outside Las Vegas, shot in the back of the head and the corpse left in the open for the wildlife to feast and “Pour encourager les autres” in management.
And some people wonder why there is so much deficit coming out of DC?
And please, do not put the blame on me because I laugh at the shutdown. It was not me who deemed you unessential, it was your employer. And if this shit ends, you will get your money anyway, so spare me your woes of “suffering and starvation” as in real life you don’t get those cushions to land on.
Keep in mind, many of the furloughed aren’t essential for “life and property protection,” I think the phrase is, but are still essential for performing the govt’s side of interactions with citizens. For instance, ATF employees who process NFA applications, permitting and licensing, etc.
One can certainly argue – and I would – that we have too many regulations and that removing some wouldn’t hurt anyone. Until that happens, though, things can stall out because there’s nobody to push the papers through.
I’m glad the shutdown is happening, and hope Trump doesn’t cave. I agree also that one paycheck delayed shouldn’t be a serious inconvenience for anyone who’s been working for more than a couple of years. And I also agree that many of the furloughed workers are – were – doing jobs that shouldn’t need doing. But until the underlying regulatory structures are simplified and de-crapped, they’re often needed if some actions are to legally occur or continue.
Food for thought and an expansion on your comment Borls. The son of a co-worker is currently furloughed because of the shutdown. He works at a nearby Civil War battleground national park. Currently only guards are working to prevent thievery. There are some good people affected by this who aren’t part of some bureaucracy.
This is why I keep screaming about the Iron Law of Bureaucracy. Some 800,000 people were hired for the sole purpose of some agency executive justifying expanding his agency’s budget and increasing the size and authority of his agency.
We have snow days once in a while here and I always laugh when “all non essential state workers” are told to stay home. Good life lesson here for feds. Sympathy is between shit and syphlis in the dictionary
Here’s a question no one has an answer for: If non-essential workers are sitting at home, away from work, but are going to be paid for not working anyway after the shutdown is over….then why aren’t they just working like the essential workers without a paycheck right now? What sense does it make to have them doing nothing and waiting to be paid? I understand the government is dumb, but that makes no sense at all.
See, I hope I wasn’t that person who was ranting.
Because even as I work for free, I’m hoping he doesn’t cave. Because caving means we have to go through this shit again in three months. I’ve cut back on a lot of stuff and most likely will have to cancel a planned vacation in February where I volunteer for a local convention, but in the end.
We’ve kicked this can for nearly twenty years. And to be quite honest, my fellow ‘essential’ coworkers should’ve seen this coming after what, our first? Second? Third in four years?
I looked at the numbers. If they can spend 75 BILLION dollars A YEAR on FOOD STAMPS alone, why is a lousy 5 Billion for a wall such a terrible thing? To keep out gangs and illegals, is that so bad?
This is a nose-to-nose standoff between the Demons and the President that has been coming for 2 years. I hope that the President wins.
The asshole Demons deserve to have a kick in the face, for all of their lies. The furloughed workers should make that plain to their congresscritters.
Especially after the histrionics and dirty dealing of the Kavanaugh hearings.
As far as I can tell, the Demons don’t care about the country, they don’t care about their constituents, and they don’t care that the man who ran for office of the President, whose platform included the wall, is made to look the bad guy because they hate him and don’t care about the Nation.
They didn’t give a dam last year as well. He caves, it’s me scrambling to stuff everything I earn and do all the Overtime ever to ensure I have a bigger buffer. Because you can bet they’ll ensure we have a shutdown every few weeks.
To be realistic, a wall will keep out the stupid and/or lazy gangs and illegals.
Which, frankly, is enough right there to make it worthwhile in my book.
I’m a federal corrections officer. I work supervising scumbags 5 days a week as do all my fellow officers and staff members watching over 180,000 crooks of various security levels.
How long should we work before getting paid? When should we all say f*ck it and not come into work? Are YOU gonna come work here for free?
And don’t tell me “you don’t have to work for the government” and ” you can get a job in the civilian sector” and all the other b.s.
There are plenty of Federal jobs that are unnecessary, but there are others that the Feds have to man and maintain. It’s worth noting in addition to the BOP guys not getting a paycheck, neither are CBP or ICE guys. You can’t privatize these 2 particular agencies or turn control over to individual states.
That said, I think the wheels are going to come off the cart first for the TSA. Those people aren’t paid enough to care and aren’t going to continue showing up for no paycheck. We can debate the necessity of the TSA, but that’s a different conversation. As it stands now, they are a hurdle for people traveling by air. If they stop showing up, air travel will grind to a halt, or at least a slow, slow crawl. I suspect it’s at that point that Schumer and Pelosi stop catering to the increasingly large Communist wing that is taking over the Democratic party and capitulate to Trump.