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Will the furloughs of civilian defense employees save us from the fiscal cliff?

 

 

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While Sequestration will not do more than pay down 4-days’ worth of our National debt, if every cent was actually used to pay down the National debt, this still amounts to nothing more than a token effort to get the nation's runaway spending under control. BTW There isn't anyone that hasn't been living under a rock for the past 20 years who believes any savings garnered from sequestration will actually be used to pay down the debt.

This being the case, it is obvious that far more than sequestration there needs to be elimination. The government needs to get real about reducing the deficit. The real, unmanipulated, numbers coming from both the GAO & CBO demonstrate that were the government to tax the entire nation at a 100% rate of their earnings the national debt could not be paid off without a reduction in real spending. Thus, it should be obvious that real cuts in government, not just government spending, in addition to the already raised taxation levels are needed to actually pay off our national debt. Long before any additional taxation should be considered an elimination of, at the very least, 25% of government employees should be forthcoming. This governmental downsizing should come with the elimination of, or drastic reduction in size, of all redundant non-elective government agencies and jobs.

Finally, simultaneously with this elimination, there should be an across the board moratorium on all governmental spending increases until such time as it can be demonstrated the National debt has been decreased to no more than 10% of our annual GDP for a period of not less than five consecutive years. Unfortunately, nothing like this will ever happen and, barring a total collapse, our politicians will continue to do nothing for fear of not being reelected. We get the politicians we deserve and at the moment that means we have politicians hell bent on running the nation into the economic toilet while blaming everyone but themselves for the mess.

Robert Ireland (PUFL)

Submitted by Bob95490 : Feb 21, 2013 5:03pm

I was a civilian defense employee for 37 years and across the board furloughs is lazines.All D.O.D facilities employ ten paper pushers for one producer .A producer is an educated skilled worker ,who gets stuck in a dead end job,because he or she is too valuable to promote to paper pusher,observer,inspector,group manager,key custodian,safety officer, planner,the list goes on ,basically incompetent people that can't be fired so they put them in a position that doesn't require any knowledge.We could cut the force by 90 percent without jeopardizing our defense,by allowing these people to retire and eliminating their positions.Of course as history has taught us, over a period of time new havens would be formed to hide the non producers,but for now this is a sure fire solution to the problem.

Submitted by scrollworkman : Feb 21, 2013 5:56pm

AS a retired military individual that currently is employed as a civilian, The comments that are posted do not reflect the fact that a majority of the personnel costs currently are in the form of gov't contracts. Contracts that have been shown to be double the expense of a GS or federal employee. The furloughs will be against federal workers. Contractors unless canceled or renegotiated will stay undisturbed through the end of the fiscal year. THis is much the same as the freeze on federal workers wages for the last two years where contractors still got wage increases. There needs to be cuts, but people better understand the entire scope of what is involved. Most of you are old soldiers. Think back when you served and lawn maintenance was a detail that the lower enlisted were relegated to perform. Now every installation has a huge contract for ground/landscape maintenace. Common sense needs to prevail.

Submitted by wkirk : Feb 21, 2013 8:46pm

I think they should reduce from the top. How many congressmen do we need? It seams to me that would be an area to look at. Thats where a lot of our tax dollars end up... in there pockets.

Submitted by Bob2498254 : Feb 22, 2013 8:43am