The sheer size of our government workforce is alarming — and we can´t afford it
The Hill [DC],
by
Kristin Tate
Original Article
Posted By: MissMolly,
4/15/2019 6:23:44 AM
After eight years of reckless expansion of the federal workforce under Barack Obama, Donald Trump vowed to downsize the wildly growing bureaucracy of Washington. In 2016, he promised to “cut so much your head will spin.” However, during the first two years of his presidency, there has been no significant effort to reduce the bloated federal payrolls. In fact, the federal government is the largest employer in the nation. Walmart, which has a presence in communities of all shapes and sizes, is the largest private employer in the nation with 1.5 million workers. Yet the number of Americans who rely
Reply 1 - Posted by:
watashiyo 4/15/2019 7:03:22 AM (No. 34500)
For starters, eliminate and privatize U.S. Post Office.
Quit and remove United Nations from N.Y. and stop government Student Loans and Grant Entitlements.
32 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
GO3 4/15/2019 7:14:17 AM (No. 34509)
For starters, slash the funding for the bloated, rudderless, and sometimes criminal intel agencies.
29 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
chumley 4/15/2019 7:27:39 AM (No. 34527)
If they didn´t have their grubby little fingers in so much of our lives, they wouldn´t need so many employees.
One little trick they are pulling right now is to bloat the employee rolls in anticipation of downsizing, so after its all over they are right back to where they were.
25 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Pearson365 4/15/2019 8:07:23 AM (No. 34511)
Reagan campaigned on reducing the size of the federal workforce yet there were more federal civilian workers when he left office than when he entered. Most campaign promises are just that, promises. “Lock her up” and “I will reduce the national debt” (he’s already. added $2+ trillion) are two promises that Trump has no intention of honoring. They are all politicians. Our role is to pick the ones who do the least damage to our country and to us, and here Trump has succeeded.
As to reducing cost of federal civilian workers, Trump could issue an executive order that ends JFK’s 1962 executive order allowing civil servants to unionize. This could lessen the generous defined benefit pension plans and the far greater than private sector salaries of these civil servants while making staffing more flexible. If JFK can issue an executive order, DJT can do the same.
23 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Paperpuncher 4/15/2019 8:19:48 AM (No. 34522)
I was sincerely hoping on the last shut down that Trump would just lay everyone off and keep it shut down. Just what does "Nonessential Employee" or "Nonessential Services" stand for???
If it is nonessential then we don´t need it and it should be eliminated. PERIOD!!
27 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 4/15/2019 8:49:21 AM (No. 34504)
Get rid of the Departments of Education and Energy, cut the pay of all the rest and disperse many of the offices out to flyover country.
27 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Safari Man 4/15/2019 9:10:42 AM (No. 34525)
FTA: “Many of the individuals serving our nation are high quality workers who provide necessary and worthwhile services”
Who? Name three.
17 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Burninfilm 4/15/2019 9:10:45 AM (No. 34508)
Government is too big, too expensive and has too much influence in our daily lives. A 25% reduction in size and overreach would be a good starting point. We could selectively trim from there.
19 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
curious1 4/15/2019 9:13:15 AM (No. 34515)
In order to downsize he has to rely on employees like the recently dismissed dhs people and the ses traitors, etc., to carry out his directions. So it´s gonna be slow until he can rif those deep staters that infeet all the fedgov.
17 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
dman 4/15/2019 9:31:45 AM (No. 34521)
Consolidation: that´s the key.
Government cannot be downsized without shutting down entire departments and agencies, and folding back redundant responsibilities into other streamlined agencies.
DHS, HHS, HUD, EPA, OSHA, Energy, and Education are good places to start. Reining in Commerce would also help. Let the pink slips roll. Fire any government employees who engage in strikes, sick outs, or other slowdowns (like Reagan did with PATCO). De-certify government employee unions. "Break some eggs."
Just .. do .. it.
17 people like this.
I did IT Project Management at the Postal Service. Oh my! Guys would walk around all day and do nothing. I mean, nothing! They told me they can´t fire them because it takes 5 years and isn´t worth the effort because of the Union! They have Union employees in IT and I was considered Mgmt. so was part of the non-union. I literally could not tell anyone what to do. All I could do was suggest. Finished a project that had been languishing for 5 years and millions of dollars and got out of there! Wow! Worse place I have ever worked!
19 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Safari Man 4/15/2019 9:48:58 AM (No. 34519)
Let’s transfer 25% of the employees to ICE and the boarder patrol, where they are needed. If the don’t like it, attrition will help.
19 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
anniebc 4/15/2019 9:49:32 AM (No. 34526)
USIS and USAID would be easy starts. USAID gives away too much of our money.
Everything except the military should be on the chop list. Let´s not forget about Congress. They don´t need to be in Washington all the time; they do too much as it is. Cut their salaries to match a quarterly coming together for 2-3 days per, and force them to remain in their communities and get real jobs. They can vote electronically. All this would cut down on travel, living expenses, security, staffing, building costs, etc. and all the other stuff we pay for them to make life miserable.
The White House should have a cut government website to get ideas from us on what and where to cut. I bet they´d get a lot of similar ideas. Seems something like this was done at the beginning of PDT´s term.
12 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
chumley 4/15/2019 9:49:39 AM (No. 34501)
#12 is right on the money, multiplied by every single agency in the federal government. Once someone has been there for a year, the only way to get rid of them is if they commit a felony on station and on work time. If they get a lawyer even that wont happen.
They may be telling the president they are downsizing, but they are not. They are playing accounting games and actually quietly expanding.
12 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Strike3 4/15/2019 10:06:28 AM (No. 34502)
In private industry, when the order for downsizing is given, the top people do not do it, they order the lower level managers to release their least productive employee. Then the management team is weeded out. In the zeal for cutting, it must be done wisely to avoid slowing down production but there are always useless employees to eject.
I once ran an IT contracting firm that was housed in the same building as an office of the Dept. of Agriculture. We arrived at work early and left late. Those people started at nine and stood on the porch smoking cigarettes all day. They were finally tasked with combining with another AG office in a nearby town and half of them retired on huge pensions rather than commute a few miles. I found out later that their main projects involved inspecting farm ponds. This type of needless exercise goes on all over the country. Yes, the Post Office is a big joke. Stamp price increase coming up and they will still never run out of the red.
13 people like this.
We could save lots of money by minimizing the FBI and shutting down the CIA.
Leave the FBI with a skeleton crew of ex-Marines for really important nationwide events, and let the states handle everything else.
The best of the agents would be hired by states and the worst would be unemployed.
11 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Clinger 4/15/2019 10:14:23 AM (No. 34517)
Every American should know how many people are pulling the wagon, how many people they are carrying in the wagon and how many people represent the wagon facilitating the process of defining who pulls who rides and how they ride. This is fundamental and every decision made on what we should be asking our government to do should be done so in this context. But it never is.
Imagine a small tribal society that decides that they will be better off with specialists guarding the hunting parties and home front keeping an eye out for threats so hunters don’t have to and can focus on the hunt. Then they decide that they can grow more food and all be better off if a few people stop farming or hunting and dig irrigation trenches so that those farming can actually produce more. A handful of aged tribal elders who themselves are no longer great hunters or farmers could decide who the protectors and diggers are and who leads those groups.
It’s easy to see how as a society a level of collective cooperation could benefit the group. I hope it would also be abundantly evident in a simple example how disaster could result if the wrong proportions of who does what was chosen. If our “leaders” and would be leaders were serious tribal elders they would be presenting their case in context not just spouting that a given cause is worthy in a vacuum without context. We are constantly asking the makers to make more as their ranks are thinned by an ever bloating government while we reward takers and invite takers in droves.
Someday we will wake up and realize nobody is left to pull the wagon.
12 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
harleynyc 4/15/2019 10:28:05 AM (No. 34499)
Not just the size, but also the budget. Every year each department gets unneeded increases in the budget, and to make sure they keep getting the cash they waste and replace many items needlessly. They also give underserved bonuses.
12 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Rather Read 4/15/2019 10:37:45 AM (No. 34520)
I went to a university before the Department of Education was established. We had the president, the vice-president, deans of the college divisions, librarian, coaches and secretaries. That´s about it. I have worked at the same university since the Department of Education and there are a LOT more people, most of whom are there to satisfy Department of Education demands, especially concerning diversity.
13 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
MDConservative 4/15/2019 11:30:20 AM (No. 34505)
Tell your Congressman that there are too many government agencies and too many Federal workers, contractors, suppliers and assorted camp followers. (S)He´ll agree.
Now, tell him to cut the agencies that employ constituents, rents space, employs contractors and assorted local camp followers. (S)He´ll talk about the essential work they do.
Lots of people want to "fire" the Federal workforce. Start by telling your neighbor whose earnings depend on those agencies that they´re fired, or need to seek new clients and customers. Go ahead. Let me know how that conversation turns out.
9 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
jacksin5 4/15/2019 1:14:10 PM (No. 34503)
Most of the Government agencies earlier posters have pointed out, have mirror agencies run by the States.
Dissolve the Federal Agencies, and let the States do their own thing.
As the Constitution clearly states, and I paraphrase, If it´s not in the Constitution, it´s to be left to the States.
8 people like this.
Believe one idea to win would be to campaign on improving the efficiency of government programs, reducing redundancy and increasing productivity.
The outcome would be better government, and less spending overall.
But, now you see why Democrats campaign for more government, it translates into more government workers who will vote for them, and will funnel campaign dollars to them.
And, ask someone like Warren Buffett if he´d simply allow people in his organization, or any of the businesses it owns, if they can just hire and expand without any justification of the need.
8 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
DVC 4/15/2019 1:21:04 PM (No. 34523)
Extremely obvious. But I doubt it will change much.
We need to make a 2% reduction in employees in each cabinet department every year for the next 10 years, as a START. Then we need to get serious about the cuts.
8 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
DVC 4/15/2019 1:21:37 PM (No. 34518)
#1, that was done a long time ago.
8 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
VirtuDawg 4/15/2019 2:19:10 PM (No. 34528)
As a former (now retired) program manager in a major U.S. aerospace corporation, I can´t begin to relate the sheer number of incompetent USG employees that I had to work with over the years.
Incompetent and arrogant for the most part ("we´re the customer, you´re the ´dirtbag´ contractor"), making poor decisions that ended up costing millions of dollars in overruns and years in slipped schedules.
Because of Civil Service rules, it was nearly impossible to terminate them, so many were tolerated in the their jobs, promoted out of jobs, or transferred to other jobs, where they continued to wreak havoc on major defense programs.
7 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 4/15/2019 3:26:14 PM (No. 34516)
The US debt is 22 trillion, and climbing. We cannot afford this. We either resolve this or it will be resolved for us in a much more painful way.
7 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
MickTurn 4/15/2019 6:53:57 PM (No. 34510)
A Civil Servant´s first job is to NOT work. Second job is to ´act like they are working´
How can you tell when a Civil Servant is deceased? Wave a pay check in front of them and they don´t flinch!
9 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
TXknitter 4/15/2019 8:41:25 PM (No. 34506)
You are on to something, #13. Its called public “service, right? Then they should be willing to train for other areas of government where they are needed.
10 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
anniebc 4/15/2019 8:41:46 PM (No. 34524)
Not "ex-Marines," poster 17!! Unless they´re leftists, there´s no such thing as an ex-Marine. If they consider themselves ex-Marine, we don´t want them in any capacity. Thank you for capitalizing Marine, though.
9 people like this.
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