Seems like Most of Our Government Employees Are Non Essential...So Why Do We Even Waste Money

Michelle Bachmann: True American Hero

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TL;DR videod
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(when she left the memorial, she continued her noble fight to cut off these same vets' housing, education, and mental health services)

 

Companies cut payroll all. the. time. Even when they make good money. When has the govt voluntarily made significant cuts? If this country was a company, we'd be out of business...years ago...

 

A true American hero

 

You might find it ridiculously hard to believe, but not all non-essential government jobs are expendable and not all non-essential government employees are worthless hacks who can't cut it anywhere else. There are many, many good, hard working, educated people that perform important day-to-day functions for the government. And they are hurting right now. I have family that is being furloughed right now and I doubt they would consider the work they do to be pointless.

And by the way, ATM machines is not, nor has it ever been essential. Because if people need money, they could, you know, go to a bank and talk to a real teller. They could use a credit or debit card. Just because they make life easier for people doesn't make them essential.

 

Seems you have a fundamental misunderstanding about the role of government and the difference between a corporation and a government.

 

eddie, it's a convenience charge not an essential charge. You may very well be the most ignorant person this board has ever seen.

 

Even texxxx is probably thinking, "good lord eddie take it easy"

 

I have used the USPS, UPS, FedEx and many international shipping organizations on a daily basis, for the last 15 years to ship over 100,000 packages. I can tell you without a doubt that the US Postal system is the most reliable and cost effective postal service that's out there.

 

You have to go all the way back to the year 2013 and sequestration, not to mention the millions of lost state and local jobs during the recession.

If the country were an octopus it would have eight arms. Let me know when you figure out something relevant to say.

 

Aside from all this bickering, this budget "crisis" could be an opportunity to decimate (one of every 10 deleted) the bloated federal payroll. If we consolidate departments (for example, the FBI, Secret Service, NSA and CIA), we could save billions in payroll and administration costs while increasing efficiency since the least effective employees would be eliminated. After this 10 percent is absorbed and operations normalized, we could do another 10% the following fiscal year.

Does anyone remember the SEC scandal where employees were caught watching p*rn and playing video games rather than investigating business corruption? The answer is no because federal employees, regardless of their transgressions, are virtually immune from being termination. We have to change that while maintaining employee protections from management abuse.

Secondly, Republicans currently are proposing budget authorizations piecemeal, and that terrifies Obama and his Democrats. I really like that concept. Rather than vote on a budget that so huge that there is no way to examine all of its parts. We literally have to pass it to see what is in it, and we all know what a disaster that strategy is. Rather, by passing the budget piece by piece, lawmakers can examine the parts more closely and thereby make better assessments as to what to pass and what to cut. The downside is that, at least to me, this plan makes sense.

 

Maybe another country where that's the way they do things would suit you better, then. That's not how the business of the U.S. govt. works.

 

Why? Do you mean that, because that's the way it has always been done makes it the way it should always be done? Why is passing the budget en toto better than piecemeal?

The business of America once was business. Today the business of America is government. Which is better? I believe the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

 

I don't know if you've noticed how long it takes to get things done in congress. If they were to vote piece by piece, it would take years to fund the nation's budget.

It's impractical to the point of being absurd.

And yes it hasn't been done this way, because even when the Govt. was at it's smallest this was completely impractical.

When the business of govt. was business we had the robber baron period, and it sucked for our nation.

 

Forced cuts. Nice try but try again.

Govt with endless payrolls...yeah that will work...this country is poor but you refuse to see it and they refuse to be responsible.

[edit]Let me state that I've worked both sides so let me compare the 2 based on my personal observations.

Work vs Hours:
Govt
During a good period I would be given a 2 hour job every 2 weeks. Sometimes it was much, much longer. I would go into my boss's office after sitting for a couple of weeks and ask if there was anything he needed me to do - "nope just sit back and take it easy for a couple of weeks". uh that's what I've been doing.
Corp
You have a steady stream of work. And while there may be some down time, there are also periods of overtime or cancelled PTO.
Bottom line: 8 people were doing the job of 2 people (1 but you need to keep one for PTO). Inefficient.

People:
Govt
Because of the lack of work, the only people who stayed where those who lazy. No one was ever fired regardless of the infraction or the amount of sleep they got every day while at the office. Now because of all the free time, you did spend a lot of time talking with your "click" and there are some nice people, but for the most part this was just enough to pay for a lazy lifestyle. Ambitious people moved on.
Corp
There is a constant "rotation" of layoffs. They layoff every couple of years even though we're bringing in record profits. A couple of months later, their jobs are posted back. The reason? They find that pruning the bush is healthy for the bush. It gets people to come to work that bring value. And if you don't bring value, then you're next up to be pruned. Trust me people are motivated to bring value or the leave before they are asked to leave.
Bottom line: Govt doesn't lay people off to make a better govt or hire better workers. They keep all they can for as long as they can. VCR rewinders have a job for life - unless an unwanted recession or sequester comes. Inefficient.

Budget:
Govt
Yes there is a budget but mgmt is rewarded by being inefficient. I got a new chair just about every year because if they don't spend the money, they lose that money in next years budget. Basically our budget for the year was last year's spending times 5%. Spend it or lose it - permanently.
Corp
There is also a budget but mgmt. is rewarded by what they don't spend out of the budget. The math figure used for their bonus isn't enough to make someone stingy but it does figure in so it's always there as an incentive. Plus it adds to their "brings value" line.
Bottom line: How a corp vs govt handles a budget is the exact opposite. Govt rewards inefficiency. Corps reward efficiency.

The govt can and should be run like a business. Just because they have no competition doesn't mean that they should just spend what they want. They do have workers , they do have customers and they do have budgets. Don't you think it would benefit us all if we did run the country like a good company? This govt has become fat and lazy. Look at our leaders for that example. It starts there and the laziness cascades down. And the longer someone stays in govt, the more they think that is the norm.