The Week in Comments: McChrystal, insourcing and delinquent contractors
The best in reader reaction to recent articles.
A roundup of some of the comments received this week in the GovExec.com Mailbag. All comments are presented in their original, unedited form.
On Obama directs government to withhold pay from delinquent contractors
Good idea, however to little to late, how about the fact that we pay China 100 million in interest per day and President Goodwrench along with the Dumbocrates still want to expand our debt. How's that for change. Come on 2012.
Good call! Why couldn't this get done by the last administration? Government and the aquisition process is slowly becoming more honest and accurate.
I do not agree with Obama on most things, but on this I do. It should have been done a long time ago, instead of letting these contractors renig on payments or be late. I hope this extends to govt contractors who are doing construction and "suddenly" want more money because they underbid the project. I have seen this a lot - particularly in MILCON.
On TSP seeks to administer death benefits more efficiently
That is a great idea! Why hasn't this been a requirement in the past. It all seems so simple. How much are the individuals getting paid that came up with this suggestion? It appears to me that something such as this would have been a logical procedure when the plan requirements were initially established. Anyway, great idea, no implement it and don't waste anymore valuable time!
I'm surprised that anyone wouldn't notify their beneficiaries about any potential death benefits. My children know who to contact if I die. Why should I leave that to anyone else? My beneficiares have copies of the beneficiary designation forms and phone numbers to call if something happens to me. I never expected the TSP to spend time locating my beneficiaries.
I'm not clear on how having the beneficiaries SSN would help find them or prevent fraud. SSA shouldn't have to have the added workload of looking up the secure data to help out the TSP. Not to mention that the participant may not have the SSN for all of their beneficiaries. And we all know how identity theft commonly uses the SSN already.
On Defense policy bill could affect insourcing efforts
Let's see...Insourcing saves money, we want to cut the Defense budget, so lets save outsourced jobs? Huh? Looks like that congressman has a lot of government contract workers in his district. Wonder who else will climb on board? Anybody want to bet against union involvement?
What is being ignored here is the cost of federal pensions. It is the single biggest unfunded and unreported liability in this country. If GM, Westinghouse or any other large company failed to recognize such a liability, the executives would be fined and jailed. Instead, the federal government just keeps "insourcing" and incurring larger debt. Finally, anyone who has worked inside of the government knows that the productivity of a federal employee rarely matches that of a contractor. Reason, it is very difficult to fire a federal employee but a contractor employee can be dismissed with a single comment from a federal manager. I was a federal employee and am, as a taxpayer and a citizen, very much against insourcing.
I love the quote "poorly performing for the past 5 years" If that was the criteria then virtually all govt employees would lose their jobs
On Budget director to step down
Managing a budget with no ceiling has to be pretty easy, wonder what his next position will be and how badly will it hurt the American Tax Payers.
That is sad news indeed. Mr. Orszag seemed to be one of the more informed officials in Government, especially when discussing IT functionality.
Something smells fishy. I wish I could have quit my job when I had a baby and got married.... "Where there is smoke, there is fire" usually applies in cases like this.
On USPS will see pushback from industry, unions on delivery day reduction
Why not offer years for the CSRS people, I have 35 years if I could get time added to that, it would be a huge incentive to leave.
WAs a 42 year retiree fron the USPS and still active in the APWU locally, the USPS gave away Parcel Post to its competitors and really saved their business, and still contracts out to their competiors FED-EX and UPS to move the mail nationwide/world wide,how will this effect these businesses with 5 or even 4 day delivery? Wake up USPS!
We have two options. Cut Saturday delivery and lose TE's or not cut a day and lose everyone. People are concerned about delayed mail. That's an every day thing at the post office. We are told to cut mail to be back by 5. The only thing that get's delayed is catalogs and advertisements. As we know first and second class has to be delivered no matter what. So what is the problem? Cut Saturday delivery.
On Obama accepts McChrystal's resignation
WSo the General said the President made a poor judgement. Well, the President has. So has everyone. I was fortunate in my 24 years in the military that the majority of my bosses did not like yes men. Regardless of whether or not you like what the President says or does (within reason and the law) you salute smartly and press on. This is a very sorry game when you might just move out a person who can do the right thing in Afghanistan. Congressional interference in Vietnam caused the death of thousands of Americans for no other reason than to look good or be politically correct. I believe that not one person in congress should be allowed to run for office unless that have spent a tour in the military. Perhaps their self indulging mindsets would change.
So he made comments about the President. Is the President above reproach, not only is the media criticized for speaking their minds so now suddenly "freedom of speech" is limited to certain people. So what, many people are displeased with the President, his aides and his "yes men". Give me a break. So now what, Obama goes after any and every person who does not agree with his policies or how he chooses to handle any given situation. Wait... last I checked this was still America and not a communist country where people are punished for speaking their mind. Wasn't the president voted in by the people? So now it's not okay to tell the truth about people like Biden who in my estimation is a clown. Get over it.
While I support the concept of "Civilian Control of the Military," I also believe that our elected leaders need to pay more attention to the advise of our gnerals/admirals, expecially when the major qualification of the "commander in chief" is running a community group. We spend a lot of time, effort and dollars training and educating our senior military staff. Let's use them for what they are trained to do. And, let's discipline them when they do not follow orders.
McChrystal resigning, what a joke. Obama had someone finally put him in his place and like any school yard wimp, fired him. It is Obama that should be getting fired. What has this country come to? I'm moving to China.
Had President Obama given General Stanley McChrystal full control of the middle east war effort, we would have won and finished in 18 months.
Obama comes out of this looking like a person who has no clue how to interact with US military personnel.
I am glad that President and his Staff took action for this. I am going thru the same stuff as the President I was abused and Humilated y my supervisor that it forced me into Disability retirement. I wish I could testify before our Armed Service Committee of the abuse that our lower peers take from our GS-14 and above.
Another example of poor civilian leadership during a war. As a Viet-Nam vet I remember vividly going through the same crap the troops are going through now. Civilian interference in conducting a war, rules of engagement that cause more US casualties and deaths and because of this the war goes on and on. When are the diplomats going to figure out that war is hell, people are going to die, and if you're going to commit our troops they need a green light to go out and win the thing and get it over.
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