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 Postal Service seeks a lifeline from Congress
Here is a letter to congress: the following are ways to remedy this situation. Stop paying your SES equivalents $300,000 plus a year (look at the mess we are in; they are not worth it). Stop allowing postal employees to receive subsidized health insurance premiums that the rest of us have to make up (that is why the postal service pays less premiums: we make up the difference); start hiring people that can actually understand english (particularly important in urban areas). Why can't management see this? Since they can't, congress needs to belly up to the table.
Let the Postal Service fail if they are bailed out yet again then change all the benefits Postal Employees get such as requiring postal employees to pay the same as other fed for their health insurance.
The time of the USPS has come and gone. They have been pretty much put out of business by technology the same as many other businesses and as air traffic controllers soon will be.
Why haven't they stopped deliveries on Saturday? Seems to be a no-brainer to me. That in itself would save millions if not billions.
On Army sets stage to slash 8,700 civilian jobs
I don't know how these people sleep at night or look themselves in the mirror. And I mean from the president down. It is unfathomable they look at cutting jobs/personnel before making easy kill cuts, like contractors, or military bands, offer a better early retirement, or even going after benefits first. I'd rather have my benefits adjusted than to see people put out of work.
Are we to believe that all of the military jobs in these commands are necessary and vital and that only civilian jobs can be eliminated?
How 'bout that, the one task assigned to the government, national security, is being targeted for severe cuts. It's not the government's responsibility to raise grown people but what do they choose to throw money at? And, the people that need to go will not be affected as always.
On Lawmaker tries to reassure beleaguered feds
Not a great fan of this solution unless it is equal across the board. If all Social Security, welfare, farm reimbursements, corporate tax reductions, etc are all capped and not allowed to increase as well, then we are just part of a necessary solution. If on the otherhand, as will likely be the case, the Congress tries to balance the budget on the backs of the workers (they have industry input where layoffs substitute for good management), then the harm to the country in terms of morale, the intelligence and commitment of workers to their jobs, and the timeliness of work completion will be adversely affected.
Of course Cardin says these: his pay and benefits aren't being cut.
What needs to happen is allow those Civil Servants who have worked for more than 25-30 years in the goverment allow them to take early outs with full retirement benefits.
On Cutting F-35 would be complicated, costly, Pentagon says
Cut it. We're out of money. Who cares if General Dynamics or other large companies don't reap huge profits for a year or two.
My prediction is that the F-35 program will continue. It will be financed by further cuts to civil service, social security, and medicare. We may end up bankrupting the middle class, but it is worth it for the Pentagon to maintain its status as the world's most powerful and expensive military.
If we had followed the late Col. Robert Boyd's excellent plan/formula to design around needs and not wistles and bells; this fighter might have come in under budget. The Pentagon mission is to spend and not save money. 26 fricking members and four committees!!?!? How many jobs are we saving in the Congressional chambers. Get on with it!
On GOP lawmaker will introduce back pay bill for FAA workers
All well and good that is being considered, but doesn't do much good for the thousands additionally affected that are not civil servants.
Are you kidding me? At a time when Congress is considering mandatory 2 week furloughs (without pay) for federal workers to reduce the debt, we want to pay these folks for not working?
FYI - Some employees of the Gov't cannot legally take income from an outside source...so you'd be advocating an individual to not be paid to keep his non-paying position. There are different laws governing feds and private individuals...
On After two centuries, House page program to end
Guess Congress just lost its "AAA" -- another amazing advantage --- of being a Congressman rating!
One of my former bosses jump-started his career as a Senate page. Why end such a valuable opportunity for deserving young people.
"After nearly 200 years of using teenagers as paid messengers, the House of Representatives will be concluding its page program as of Aug. 31." It costs $69,000 to $80,000 per page???? I have spent my entire career working for the Government and am just now tipping that kind of pay. I started as a GS-02 clerk typist and worked my way up from there. Pages start as GS-11s?? No wonder the finances of this country are in disaster. Whose teenagers were these that got the page jobs. It certainly was not a well deserving person who truly needed the money for college tuition, they would have never been considered for any of this kind of hand out. What a disgrace. The senate should also get rid of this program.
On Bill would authorize back pay for furloughed workers
I do hope congress does the right thing and authorizes backpay. It's bad enough they want to freeze our pay for 5 years and cut our benefits, but to not pay furloughed emplpyees - especially when they initially went off on vacation without addressing the issue and had to be called back is just plain stupid.
Too late ! I doubt if any FAA workers will be voting for a Republican in 2012.
In comes the knights in shining armor, NOT. What kind of idiots do these Republicians take us for. They are the ones who were holding out for what they wanted or nothing. Now they want to look like they really care about us. My memory is not that short yet, I will remember in Nov who NOT to vote for.
It's not the 70,000 construction worker's fault either. Are they going to get back pay?
On White House still reviewing plan for disclosing contractor campaign gifts
This is another example of how out of touch with reality and how stubborn White House and Democrats are. Political contributions do not affect how contracts are awarded. Much emphasis is being placed on large businesses when it comes to proposals submitted for government business. Small businesses probably don't contribute over $5,000 to political action groups or candidates and FAR expressly prohibits lobbying and contributions so when companies are audited, these are recorded on the books but deleted from the overheads. Congress needs real world experience so I'm still advocating term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court as an amendment to the Constitution. Neither should be a lifetime job.
This is a very good idea. I am actually dismayed that ANY member of Congress would oppose this transparency. Republican or Democrat, beware of those that oppose this law.
I'm in favor of transparency, but I think this idea would be a mistake. If a company submits a bid and discloses a large donation to the party that's not the president's, and then doesn't get the contract, it will suspect that it's because they donated to the "wrong" party. On the other hand, if a company donates to the president's party and gets the contract, the losing bidders may suspect it's quid pro quo. I think that the parties and congress people should have to reveal their donors. Donation information should not be a part of the bidding process at all. If the selection officer gets "advice" about which bidder to select, it might be valuable to see whether that bidder contributed to the person giving the advice.
On Source: Democrats Murray, Baucus, Kerry on deficit reduction committee
The panel is doomed.
I sure hope both parties appoint people that have a large population of federal employees in their states. We desperately need someone on our side. I'd like to see someone from MD and VA on the committee.
Tell me something Congress-people: why do we need committee's to do the job we the american taxpayer already pays you to do? YOU including the Tea Party are what's wrong with America: stop saying "no, we can't cut military spending" and "no we can't cut this or that social program". You Congress-people are responsible for this mess for passing the buck for years so get over yourselves and start doing what we pay you to do.
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