How to End It — If We Must ​

[Doc91478]

How to End It — If We Must ​​

https://spectator.org/the-popes-bridge-to-nowhere/
Will Rogers, long ago, had the most economical analysis and dismissal of the issue that currently worries wonks, swamp creatures, and those who take the mainstream media seriously. The insightful Will said, “It’s a good thing we don’t get all the government we pay for.” Ain’t that the God’s honest truth? I’ll wait here for the “amen.” Tuesday will make a month since the federal government was “shut down.” There’s much alarm and fretting in Washington and in Democrat-majority precincts. But the planets are still aligned. Cabernet still goes well with grilled steak. Spring training will still begin next month. Discomfort is minimal, though I hate to see those Coast Guard petty officers going without their paychecks. That the TSA has had to lay off a couple of hundred proctologists at airport inspection stations across the land doesn’t trouble me at all. In fact, I count this as a plus. It makes the friendly skies friendlier.... And we’ve not much discussed the benefits accruing to the fact no one is going to “work” at the Federal Department of Education. This colossal waste of time, tax money, effort, and office space has been around since 1979, has 4,000 employees, costs us $70 billion a year, and in its pointless 40 years of existence has never helped a single child learn how to read. It has, however, issued a series of crackpot rules and directives that have made government education even worse than it otherwise would have been (and this isn’t easy). That these overpaid ear-mites are currently riding it out at home, where they’re even more idle than they are when they’re at “work,” is hardly an inconvenience to the republic. More like a boon.... But if one is convinced, as so many Americanos seem to be, that it’s important to return to what passes for normal in the federal Leviathan, I think I have a way to make the Democrats come up with the money for the wall. Just tell them today (with fingers crossed, of course) that we’ll build a bike path on one side of the wall and run high-speed rail down the other. The money will be on the table tomorrow.


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It's really too much when any Federal politician argues that the reason something should be done is that Fed. employees are suffering. The benefits Federal employees receive for working less and even lesser hours is truly disgusting. Even more blatant is the fact they're proud of it.
Why the Secret Service and Coast Guard are in this category should really be changed.
No one in the DC swamp sheds a tear when some person paying their fed taxes, loses their job in the private work force.
Reduction in Force (RIF) sounds like the silver lining. Apparently the Obama administration converted the status of a lot of bureaucratic jobs to civil servants so they couldn't be fired. But that doesn't mean they can't be furloughed permanently. Wouldn't that be a grand consolation?
Once again an excellent essay by Thornberry.

 

[Pedestrian]

Big govt. is just fine for all of those people who feel it...serves their interest.

And that is true...no matter the particular interest.

 

[Skeptic Bob]

But you can’t accurately compare what federal employees go through with a shutdown to what people in the private sector go through when they lose their job. People in the federal fovernment lose their jobs all the time. Positions get cut. People get fired for cause. Departments get closed down to free up money for other more necessary departments. Comparing THAT to people who lose their jobs in the private sector is fair.

But that isn’t what is going on with a shutdown. Where in the private sector are employees required to go to work without knowing when they will be paid? In the private sector if your employer refuses to pay you in a timely manner for their labor then you can sue or strike. Federal employees just have to live in limbo.

Hell, the federal employees being forced to go to work without pay aren’t even allowed to file for unemployment. They also can’t just use their paid leave as all such leave is cancelled under a shutdown. Even the federal employees with enough time in to retire can’t retire under a shutdown as there is a good amount of administrative requirements for doing so that are currently on hold.

And simply taking a part time job is also problematic as many government positions require you to get permission for such jobs and also require vetting of the job by an ethics board to ensure no conflicts of interests. Those evaluations don’t happen during a shutdown.

Federal employees have their hands tied in ways that private sector employees don’t. And yeah, the federal government has some great benefits. They have to in order to make up for the fact that federal employees earn less than their private sector counterparts,in salary.

Now, I don’t think that is a reason to not shut down the government. The government doesn’t exist for the purpose of employing people. The government shouldn’t shut down because we pay taxes to keep it running. And guess what, we aren’t going to get a reduction in those taxes for all the work the government isn’t doing during the shutdown. We still have to pay those taxes. So right now the federal government is taking our money and not giving us what we are paying for.

 

[Doc91478]

But you can’t accurately compare what federal employees go through with a shutdown to what people in the private sector go through when they lose their job. People in the federal fovernment lose their jobs all the time. Positions get cut. People get fired for cause. Departments get closed down to free up money for other more necessary departments. Comparing THAT to people who lose their jobs in the private sector is fair.

But that isn’t what is going on with a shutdown. Where in the private sector are employees required to go to work without knowing when they will be paid? In the private sector if your employer refuses to pay you in a timely manner for their labor then you can sue or strike. Federal employees just have to live in limbo.

Hell, the federal employees being forced to go to work without pay aren’t even allowed to file for unemployment. They also can’t just use their paid leave as all such leave is cancelled under a shutdown. Even the federal employees with enough time in to retire can’t retire under a shutdown as there is a good amount of administrative requirements for doing so that are currently on hold.

And simply taking a part time job is also problematic as many government positions require you to get permission for such jobs and also require vetting of the job by an ethics board to ensure no conflicts of interests. Those evaluations don’t happen during a shutdown.

Federal employees have their hands tied in ways that private sector employees don’t. And yeah, the federal government has some great benefits. They have to in order to make up for the fact that federal employees earn less than their private sector counterparts,in salary.

Now, I don’t think that is a reason to not shut down the government. The government doesn’t exist for the purpose of employing people. The government shouldn’t shut down because we pay taxes to keep it running. And guess what, we aren’t going to get a reduction in those taxes for all the work the government isn’t doing during the shutdown. We still have to pay those taxes. So right now the federal government is taking our money and not giving us what we are paying for.

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Surely all you've written is correct. Both Nancy Pelosi and Chuckie Schumer had the opportunity to end the gov't shutdown after Trump's Saturday public offer. However, before Trump spoke Pelosi rejected the offer without even knowing what it contained.