The Week in Comments: Bad weather, attacks on IRS employees and Marine Corps hiring freeze
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 Senate backers of 'don't ask' repeal to pursue new tactic
What really is the pressing need to repeal this law? What exactly is it going to do to enhance the effectiveness of the military? You're forcing the military to accept a lifestyle change that has nothing to do with good order and discipline other than to placate a group of people for what, to garner more votes?
Please do not allow gays to serve in the military. I have seen first hand the dangers in allowing this travesty. The majority of God loving Americans need to stand up and say "Enough!".
Please DO allow gays to serve in the military. I have seen first hand the benefits in allowing this. The majority of God loving Americans need to open a dictionary and look up the words "love" and "tolerance".
On Marines set 90-day civilian hiring freeze
Someone needs to take a look at the officer to enlisted ratio. The Marines and the other services are more top heavy than any other time in history. If we want to seriously cut government spending, we need to trim some of these plum officer paper pushing jobs.
Lets look at Military Officer to Enlisted ratios
Sounds like the Marines are ready to RIF.
On Threats of violence against IRS employees persist
This situation should not come as a surprise considering how these jack-booted thugs deal with the rest of the citizenry. The overzealous, aggressiveness of the IRS agents is well-documented in text and in film. Finally, the federal government has no legislative authority to tax the "wages" of its citizens. Read the Constitution and see what is categorized as "income". There is no legitimate provision to tax wages. Ask any IRS agent to show you in written statutes where their authority to tax wages comes from. Cannot be found.
I think that it is time to convert the IRS to the military financial branch of DoD. If IRS employees would wear military uniforms they would have the respect of our citizenry. Additional resources would be made available to provide Anti-Terrorism and Force Protection measures which are available to our military personnel. Once again if we could expand the roles of our military we could solve almost all of our social problems which we face today.
Rich people do not pay taxes. I worked in a processing center and I saw thousands of returns of very wealthy people. some were hundreds of pages lon and prepared by high powered CPA's and lawyers. Taxable income mad them eligible for welfare.
Most of the millionaires on the tax rolls as rich are ball players and movie stars. The sharks avoide admitting their true wealth.
On Senate considers extending transit benefits
And who in the private sector gets an extra $230/ month to commute? You wonder why the public is getting pissed at public sector salaries and benefits?
Those feds in the Wash DC metro area already receive locality pay. The cost to the public for the transportation isn't just the $230/$120 per month. There's the cost to administer the program,and how many of the feds receiving the benefit are actually claiming this as income on their fed taxes as required?
On Survey: Managers anticipate pay boosts in spite of freeze
As mentioned in this story, the 2 year freeze is not significant when the inflation rate is next to zero. However, any other changes, especially the `high-5', would encourage senior talent (myself included) to retire earlier than planned. When one could walk across the hall and work for one of the contractors for the same pay and collect a full retirement this is a `no brainer'. Many professionals work past their optional retirement date for minimal compensation (when you factor in the pension not being collected) because they enjoy their work and service to the Country. Those factors go away when you have Congress attacking your service.
the pay freeze has certainly lowered morale, i can understand the reason to lower the debt however will this money go for that cause? a 0.5% raise would be less than the small one we usually get but would be a raise non the less and improve morale which improves productivitiy, thanks
Pay freeze is only going to affect the middle class. Just like every thing else the pres. is doing. Not for the middle class.
I must agree with some of the comments when it comes to looking at a change from high three to high five. With a change from 3 to 5 and a pay freeaze for two years, I would look at losing about 10% on my monthly pension. I have not worked very hard for over 35 years to watch my retirement investment lose that amount. Coupled with the losses of my IRA's the few years this reduction woulod force me to have to work way beyond my maximum retirement age.
On Senate joins push to freeze federal salaries
a drop in the bucket, please elected officials, don't focus on the hard issues like the entitlements, focus on low hanging fruit like discretionary spending.. again, another congress with the 90/ 10 rule... 90% effort on only 10% of the problems.. if they froze this spending to pre-depression times, it wont fix the issues!!!
What a bunch a morons! They freeze federal spending and salaries but yet the tax cut legistration and omnibus spending bills has tons and tons of earmarks totaling billions and billions for their districts!?! They just DO NOT DO NOT understand. It is time to wake up and vote all of these incumbents out of office. We need better choices and now is the time to add a third party. Stop the spending and focus on making jobs and reducing our deficit.
Figures. Give the wealthy 700 Billion in tax cuts but give the productive workers a pay freeze to save 2 Billion. (Actually a pay cut after increasing health insurance premiums.) Totally dissatisfied with the way the country is headed.
You know, how many free hours do we give the government each week? When was the last time you worked an 8-hour day? I say work to the rule. If your boss won't approve the overtime, then tell him or her you will see them in the morning! WORK TO THE RULE!
It's about time. The gov makes 30K more than me doing the exact same job, same experience, and is guaranteed a job even if there is no work to do that day, week, or month for that matter. Plus time to work out etc. I get sent home and take vacation or no pay. Get real.....
Is it just me? Or is there some infinite irony that the fattest cats in the US living off the people are behind this idea. How about we start with the Senate and District Representatives salary and pension plans. Sure the middle class will adapt, it always has. They stand way more to lose if we made these people all middle class again. If they are so smart, how about we let their genius and business savvy pay their salary. Senate and Congress positions should pay $1 a year with a cap on expenditures. Management here is useless.
On OPM overhauls severe weather leave guidelines
Currently our office authorizes employees to telework one day a week per our scheduled telework agreements. The purpose of this comment is to get a clarification on the new OPM operating status policy. Let's say for example that the government operating status for a day is "open, unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework day". My understanding of this policy would mean to conclude that if this was an applicable operating status for a day AFTER or BEFORE a schduled telework day during the week in which one already teleworked or will be teleworking, that one would then be authorized to telework on that particular day in which this operating status was announced. If anyone can clarify this policy to ensure this is a correct understanding, it would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Love the ability to telework on bad weather days. Question the requirement of teleworkers to work when gov is 'closed to the public'. If non-teleworkers of which there are still MANY, are given paid administrative leave, but teleworkers who have to care for children out of school, attend to property would be required to take leave and/or work while others get the day off. Seems a dis-incentive for telework
Telework? What telework? I have worked for DoD for several years and whenever the issue came up it was nixed by the commander. Now that the Prez has signed it into law, maybe we will hear something about this.
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