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Federal Holidays

R

randym431

Golden Member
Do we REALLY need a federal holiday for the death of a former president?
What is the cost to us, the tax payers, for these holidays?
Do the fed employees stay home and watch it on tv? Or even care?

I think these federal holidays need to be few and seldom...
Now THATS something the democrats can do in their first 100 days.

No mail for three days has got to mess up and cost businesses a lot!
 
Contractors are still required to work! (if they are able to get into their workplaces like me)
 
Well I just think shutting down the whole fed gov costs tax payers (we the people) a lot. I can see "some" branches being closed, but I'd like to know the actual tax payer cost to doing this. If tax payers want to save some tax dollars, this would be a good place to start. And I dont think President Ford would disagree.
 
Originally posted by: randym431
Well I just think shutting down the whole fed gov costs tax payers (we the people) a lot. I can see "some" branches being closed, but I'd like to know the actual tax payer cost to doing this. If tax payers want to save some tax dollars, this would be a good place to start. And I dont think President Ford would disagree.
Click to expand...

How much work do federal employees do in a given day anyways? The last contract I worked on everyone had a tv on their desk and spent 75% of the day watching it. The other 25% of the day was spent on the phone with family(we had access to free long-distance calls).

I think the biggest waste of money is all the contractors given a paid day off because they can't get into their offices.
 
Originally posted by: Genx87
I think they should take the entire month off, 2 if they feel it neccessary.
Unpaid of course.
Click to expand...

Ah Ha. The Neo-Con myth strikes again.

The Neo-Con economic plan states that government programs help so few people that they could all be eliminated without much public protest or impact on America.
Guess what? In a modern society government has a huge role to play. And while government might not be the most efficient provider of certain services, it is the ONLY capable provider of many, many services needed by the vast majority of Americans.
When the Neo-Cons got in power and merely proposed cutting some programs, the public became informed of what those programs actually did and demanded they stay. At which point the Neo-Cons took no action, just continued to spread their propoganda to the ignorant.

 
Hell with worry about the Holidays.


Just go see how much you local, state, and national, government employee's retirement is going to cost you. You think taxes are rotten now, they are only going to get worse as the government can make any retirement promise it wants to its employees because they can take your money to do good.


best yet, if some middle level bureacrat screws up his management of the government employee's pension play either through misuse or mismanagement guess who has to fill the gap, the tax payers all over again.
 
Originally posted by: Shivetya
Hell with worry about the Holidays.


Just go see how much you local, state, and national, government employee's retirement is going to cost you. You think taxes are rotten now, they are only going to get worse as the government can make any retirement promise it wants to its employees because they can take your money to do good.


best yet, if some middle level bureacrat screws up his management of the government employee's pension play either through misuse or mismanagement guess who has to fill the gap, the tax payers all over again.
Click to expand...

Which is why we need RESPONSIBLE government. Not like what he had in Washington the last 6 years.

 
Ah Ha. The Neo-Con myth strikes again.

The Neo-Con economic plan states that government programs help so few people that they could all be eliminated without much public protest or impact on America.
Guess what? In a modern society government has a huge role to play. And while government might not be the most efficient provider of certain services, it is the ONLY capable provider of many, many services needed by the vast majority of Americans.
When the Neo-Cons got in power and merely proposed cutting some programs, the public became informed of what those programs actually did and demanded they stay. At which point the Neo-Cons took no action, just continued to spread their propoganda to the ignorant.
Click to expand...

I like the word Neo-Con for one reason.

The people who use don't know what it means, but their parrots to begin with, and usually their opinions are so stupid as to make anything they write about ignorable.

Next up, people who toss the word fascism around as if they knew what it was, let alone NAZI.



BTW, your description of what happens in government happens regardless of what party is in power. Both parties suck and those who support either side suck too. Your both thieves taking the hard earned incomes of millions of Americans. Neither side cares about the middle class until its time to vote.
 
Originally posted by: Shivetya
Ah Ha. The Neo-Con myth strikes again.

The Neo-Con economic plan states that government programs help so few people that they could all be eliminated without much public protest or impact on America.
Guess what? In a modern society government has a huge role to play. And while government might not be the most efficient provider of certain services, it is the ONLY capable provider of many, many services needed by the vast majority of Americans.
When the Neo-Cons got in power and merely proposed cutting some programs, the public became informed of what those programs actually did and demanded they stay. At which point the Neo-Cons took no action, just continued to spread their propoganda to the ignorant.
Click to expand...

I like the word Neo-Con for one reason.

The people who use don't know what it means, but their parrots to begin with, and usually their opinions are so stupid as to make anything they write about ignorable.

Next up, people who toss the word fascism around as if they knew what it was, let alone NAZI.



BTW, your description of what happens in government happens regardless of what party is in power. Both parties suck and those who support either side suck too. Your both thieves taking the hard earned incomes of millions of Americans. Neither side cares about the middle class until its time to vote.
Click to expand...

And there is nothing you can do about it, except pick a side and try to influence their thinking/policies.
 
Originally posted by: techs
Originally posted by: Genx87
I think they should take the entire month off, 2 if they feel it neccessary.
Unpaid of course.
Click to expand...

Ah Ha. The Neo-Con myth strikes again.

The Neo-Con economic plan states that government programs help so few people that they could all be eliminated without much public protest or impact on America.
Guess what? In a modern society government has a huge role to play. And while government might not be the most efficient provider of certain services, it is the ONLY capable provider of many, many services needed by the vast majority of Americans.
When the Neo-Cons got in power and merely proposed cutting some programs, the public became informed of what those programs actually did and demanded they stay. At which point the Neo-Cons took no action, just continued to spread their propoganda to the ignorant.
Click to expand...

I think you dont know what you talk about. Does anybody else besides techs really believe neo-cons are for small govt?

 
Originally posted by: Wapp
Originally posted by: randym431
Well I just think shutting down the whole fed gov costs tax payers (we the people) a lot. I can see "some" branches being closed, but I'd like to know the actual tax payer cost to doing this. If tax payers want to save some tax dollars, this would be a good place to start. And I dont think President Ford would disagree.
Click to expand...

How much work do federal employees do in a given day anyways? The last contract I worked on everyone had a tv on their desk and spent 75% of the day watching it. The other 25% of the day was spent on the phone with family(we had access to free long-distance calls).

I think the biggest waste of money is all the contractors given a paid day off because they can't get into their offices.
Click to expand...


haha I know what you mean. I have worked on federal contracts in the past and people sit around collecting fat checks doing very little actual work. If they fail to make a deadline it is simply extended. So what is the motivation to get the job done? All that does is force you to renegotiate a new contract for another job. No need when you can make the current one run on and on and on.


 
I dont recall a national day of mourning for Reagan. Although, I could have just missed it. This is kind of like Martin Luther King Day. It is a Federal Holiday, but most places dont allow people to take the day off. Where I work we have X number of holidays, and you can not take off more than that unless you are on vacation or something.

Most people are not taking this day off.

If you bid on a Federal Contract, you have to work around whatever the Federal Government does. You dont have to accept goverment contracts . . . .
 
Originally posted by: techs
Originally posted by: Shivetya
Hell with worry about the Holidays.


Just go see how much you local, state, and national, government employee's retirement is going to cost you. You think taxes are rotten now, they are only going to get worse as the government can make any retirement promise it wants to its employees because they can take your money to do good.


best yet, if some middle level bureacrat screws up his management of the government employee's pension play either through misuse or mismanagement guess who has to fill the gap, the tax payers all over again.
Click to expand...

Which is why we need RESPONSIBLE government. Not like what he had in Washington the last 60 years.
Click to expand...
Fixed. :disgust:
 
Originally posted by: BarneyFife
I wonder who is going to maintain the federal highways when the government workers stay home for 2-3 months?
Click to expand...

Maybe it's different where you live, up here private contractors do that work. 😉
 
State employees maintain the various highways in their districts, NOT the feds...


What's big, orange, and sleeps 6?


Cal-Trans truck...😉
 
Out of control?

Its not every year a former president dies. Its possible with Daddy Bush and Carter to have it again in a few years but after those to its going to be a long time before Clinton or Dubya will die

 
Originally posted by: 2Xtreme21
I want to see GenX deliver his own mail... cuz, ya know, gov't programs are t3h d3vil.
Click to expand...

Answer yourself this question. When people ship overnight or items larger than a simple first class piece of mail, is the USPS the first on their list? I am sure if the USPS ceased to exist with the laws protecting its monopoly a private carrier would rise from the ashes and probably provide the service at a lower cost.



 
While I think overall, the USPS does a good job delivering the mail, (billiions of pieces each day, MOST delivered on time, to the right address, in good condition) the exceptions to that are bad enough to make you shudder. WAY too much theft by postal employees, way too many pieces of misdirected mail, (I still get mail addressed to the people who used to live in my house 8 years ago), way too much inefficiency.
Would privatizing the mail improve that? I doubt it. Look at UPS, Fed-Ex, DHL, etc. Most of us have our own horror stories about packages destroyed/misdelivered/lost by the big shipping companies.

As for the ORIGINAL topic, HOLIDAYS, Yes, I believe the federal government gets WAY too many paid holidays. (although, for 2007, there are actually only 10 (not counting today) for MOST banking organizations/legal institutions/etc follow those federal holidays as well, adding greatly to the cost to the country.
Here's the list of paid federal holidays for 2007 and the relevant laws on them:

Federal law (5 U.S.C. 6103) establishes the following public holidays for Federal employees. Please note that most Federal employees work on a Monday through Friday schedule. For these employees, when a holiday falls on a nonworkday -- Saturday or Sunday -- the holiday usually is observed on Monday (if the holiday falls on Sunday) or Friday (if the holiday falls on Saturday).

Monday, January 1
New Year's Day

Monday, January 15
Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Monday, February 19*
Washington?s Birthday

Monday, May 28
Memorial Day

Wednesday, July 4
Independence Day

Monday, September 3
Labor Day

Monday, October 8
Columbus Day

Monday, November 12**
Veterans Day

Thursday, November 22
Thanksgiving Day

Tuesday, December 25
Christmas Day


* This holiday is designated as "Washington's Birthday" in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code, which is the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees. Though other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it isour policy to always refer to holidays by the names designated in the law.

** November 11, 2007, (the legal public holiday for Veterans Day) falls on a Sunday. For most Federal employees, Monday, November 12, will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes (See 5 U.S.C. 6103(b).)"
 
I guess to people who feel small, and are uninformed about the services it provides, the federal government looks big, and they just want to cut it.

To others who have an idea about what's needed for soceiety to work well, they understand the need for a decent sized federal government. Not too big, not too small.

One of the problems is that the 'small government' people are under the delusion that the cuts will happen to the 'waste'; that's not the case. Their options are more limited than they realize.

Because they are easy to manipulate with rants about the big bad government, the crooks have used them to get elected and stuff their pockets. These right-wingers just sit around with dazed looks saying, 'but they said they were for small government and they're spending worse than the democrats' - and then blame the democrats or say 'they're just as bad'.

No, the democrats are for sensible government generally. Something as big as the government - or big companies or charities or militaries or whatever - are going to have some 'waste'. You can't look just at that. You have to weigh the overall benefits versus costs.
 
Uh, today isn't a "federal holiday"...federal employees aren't going to get this day off NEXT year. And maybe it's just me, but federal employees having the day off when a former President dies doesn't seem like overkill. But speaking of not working very hard, I'll notice all of you people complaining about this don't seem to be too busy with working.
 
My neighbor is a Kahleeforneeya State employee, and he has the option of taking today off as an unscheduled vacation day, but it's NOT a state-wide paid day off.
 
Originally posted by: Craig234
I guess to people who feel small, and are uninformed about the services it provides, the federal government looks big, and they just want to cut it.

To others who have an idea about what's needed for soceiety to work well, they understand the need for a decent sized federal government. Not too big, not too small.

One of the problems is that the 'small government' people are under the delusion that the cuts will happen to the 'waste'; that's not the case. Their options are more limited than they realize.

Because they are easy to manipulate with rants about the big bad government, the crooks have used them to get elected and stuff their pockets. These right-wingers just sit around with dazed looks saying, 'but they said they were for small government and they're spending worse than the democrats' - and then blame the democrats or say 'they're just as bad'.

No, the democrats are for sensible government generally. Something as big as the government - or big companies or charities or militaries or whatever - are going to have some 'waste'. You can't look just at that. You have to weigh the overall benefits versus costs.
Click to expand...

I think you hit the nail right on the head. Arguments about "big government" vs "small government" totally miss the point. The government isn't a homogeneous entity, so simply cutting "government" is not going to really help...you might get less waste, but you'll also get less of the things you really want the government to do. A government half the size of the current one would be a much worse situation if the half that remained was the half that contains all the waste and fraud but none of the essential services.

The real goal should be SMART government, which is neither big nor small, but just as large as it needs to be. And back on the topic of this thread, a vital part of "smart" government is getting smart people to work there. Thanks mostly to our elected representatives, highly skilled government employees can't be compensated with salaries like they could get in the private sector, so things like excellent health benefits and lots of time off are offered as another form of compensation. And I know, I know, "highly skilled government employees" is an oxymoron...but that's because you're thinking of the people who work at the DMV. But organizations that actually require employees with competitive skills, like the FBI, State Department, various intelligence agencies, etc, would have a hard time hanging on to good employees without offering SOME benefits.
 
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