The Week in Comments: Is another shutdown coming?
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 Congress passes bill giving flags to families of federal employees killed in the line of duty
Now who said this was a do nothing Congress!!
To lose your life in the service to the public makes you a hero. Circumstances are not chosen but jobs are. Civil service has long been maligned and this, although a small gesture tells the family that your life was important to the country and you are honored.
A nice gesture, but is this something else that is going to come out of the hide of the Federal Civil Servants? And, Hasn't Congress got more pressing matters on its plate at the moment?
On Plan to relocate FBI headquarters advances
I think that, if a new HQ is necessary, it should be outside the DC area, where the government rates for hotels is in the $220 range, parking is $25 per day, and a hamburger is $9.00. If we begin moving some offices sixty miles from DC and make our own government complex, then you'll see the prices go down in DC for those entities that, by function, are required to be in DC.
Why not move them to the Quantico area in Virginia, they already have training facilities built and you can't get more sure than on the middle of a USMC base!
How about making the FBI a fee-based agency like many others. Then target all the white collar crooks on Wall Street! The money collected back from them should more than pay for a new building for the FBI. I find it interesting that with all the financial meltdowns and the various laws that were in place to mitigate them (like Sarbanes-Oxley), there have been far more 'Occupy' protesters arrested than the crooked corporate executives and Wall Street bankers who caused the recession and continue to profit.
On Government safety board recommends ban on use of electronic devices in cars
Gee, glad we live in a "free" country! Govt out of our lives! Don't tell me what I can and cant do. How about laws banning puting make up on, or smoking while driving, which is not only a distraction. but a health hazard to EVERYONE?
Finally. I've seen too many people who likely can't drive in a straight line anyway, weaving all over the road because they are gabbing or texting on their phones. I'm sure we'll be hearing from the ACLU very shortly complaining that the government is violating someone's "right" to endanger others while using their phone when driving.
Ban use of "ANY" electronic device? Radios are 'electronic devices.' CD players are 'electronic devices.' CB radios are 'electronic devices.' What next? Eating, drinking while driving? Reading the paper, putting on your make-up, checking the map? How about SMOKING, that is a distraction! Next, no noise, disruptive kids in the car, that's a REAL distraction! No talking to passengers while driving? Where will it end!?
Amen to this. We lived without them before they were created, and we can certainly live without them now!
On House passes bill that includes extension of federal pay freeze
Well if any doubt remained it's gone now. Republicans really are anti government worker. As far as their concerned we shouldn't exist or if we do we shouldn't make enough to live. When the time comes to vote for or against these clowns, I sure hope all government workers remember this.
Let the cut expire. Don't make me pay for it. If my pension contribuotion is going to increase then it should be used fora better reason. My pay is already frozen for 2 years
I think that this is unfair to subject the federal family to a pay freeze through 2013, with everything that's going on, it's hard for us to keep our standard of living and the wealthy continue to get wealthier. I think that congress need to be more realistic.
Why can't Congress and the Whitehouse see that the governmental tier is like a tree? If it needs trimming, you don't trim away the roots, you trim away the excess limbs from the branches. Otherwise too few roots will cause that top heavy tree to topple over. Do I here a "TIMBER!" loud and clear headed our way?
Thank you Congressman Camp and Mr. Speaker Boehner for voting to cut my federal retirement by 37% with the elimination of the Special Supplement. The Federal workers will work hard to put both of you in the unemployment line come 2012. What a disgrace to the Federal employee both oif you are. We will fight this to the end. You DON"T change the rules of my retirement in midstream! What a bunch of arrogant imbicles you are! FedUp in GA!!!!
On Retirement applications up 24 percent from last year
I suspect 2012 and 2013 will eclipse 2011.
Congress would never understand a brain drain since a brain is necessary to understand the concept. If you looked at recent Congressional actions, one would think that federal civil servants were exclusively responsible for the deficit.
Harsh way to 'down size' the federal work force, but it is working! I was going to stay a couple of years more, but now i will go out in April 2012 and not look back! I regret ever hiring on with the feds!
The retirement "tsunami" will come to a screeching halt when the last CSRS employees retire leaving only FERS employees in the pool. There is absolutely no way that most FERS employees will financially be able to retire at 55 or even 60. Can't wait to see what that will do to OPMs projections of how many people will retire in a given year...
On Lawmakers decry extended pay freeze to finance payroll tax holiday
The payroll tax cut extension plan that affect federal workers specifically is going to produce a more accelerated pace of lost experience and knowledge in already short changed and much needed section of expertise . I personally don't need to lose any value on my calculated annuity when based on a five year average for one and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Yes, I am retiring I cannot afford not to.
No one goes into federal service, or any other job working for anyone else to get rich. We are mostly working stiffs trying to support ourselves and our families. Time and time again articles on this site have shown that the freeze on the pay of federal workers is providing and infinitesmal amount of deficit relief, and still Congress wants to target us? When will we hear about them giving up some of their perks? They have done nothing to deserve them - we put them there and they are not entitled to all those things. Big deal - a bunch of millionaires have their wages frozen at 174K. I'm beginning to wonder if taking a government job was a mistake.
I understand that the US needs to balance it's budget. But cutting our pay to pay for a tax break is the wrong way to go about it. (And cutting out pay is exactly what they're doing by freezing it & making us pay more for retirement at the same time.) Congress needs to look at a new scapegoat to bleed dry, the federal employees are out of blood to give.
On OMB to feds: Prepare for the possibility of a shutdown
Once again ALL members of Congress have demonstrated why none of them should be re-elected!
So which party of mature adults will turn blue first?
Just out of curiosity, anybody know how long the government would have to be really and truly shut down to eliminate the $15 Trillion in debt this nation is? Maybe a shutdown is a good thing? Of course if you haven't prepared at all and are living paycheck to paycheck, you won't think so... Social chaos, here we come.
Happy holidays federal workers!!, signed, Congress (a.k.a. the grinch that stole Christmas)
Here's a good idea, put the House and Senate both on NSPS and have an elected Zar to do their eval's.