Federal Holidays

[marincounty]

Originally posted by: Rainsford

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.

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.

Bingo, we have a winner. Unfortunately the right-wingers have been cutting federal benefits and giving miniscule raises since Pres. Reagan, which has driven most of the hard-working and competent federal employees into either retirement or the private sector, and at the same time contracted out vast amounts of work previously done by federal employees to corporations such as Halliburton .
Does anyone think contracting out saves money? If so, I have a beautiful bridge to sell you-cheap.

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

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.

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.

And there is nothing you can do about it, except pick a side and try to influence their thinking/policies.

Nature will handle it for us, if the people want self destruction then they shall get their wish fulfilled in earnest. We need only watch the next hundred years and things will become very exciting before the end.

 

[marvdmartian]

Seeing as the only change to paid federal holidays in the last 25+ years has been the change of making the January holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, and the February holiday in honor of all the presidents (versus the old days, when January was Washington's b-day, and February was Lincoln's b-day), I don't see that it's any more "out of control" than it was in the past.

What you're referring to is the "day of mourning" that has now happened 3 times in the past dozen or so years, with the deaths of Presidents Nixon, Reagan and now Ford. What we're seeing isn't so much an incredible increase of the days off that federal employees are "enjoying", but moreso a simple fact that 3 of our ex-presidents have died in recent years. If you stop and think about it, the previous presidential death before Nixon was that of the guy he replaced, Lyndon Johnson, who died in 1973. The simple fact of the matter is that we had a 20+ year period with NO presidential deaths (remember Reagan's opening of his library, in 93, when we had FIVE presidents in attendance? when's the last time we had 5 ex-presidents alive at once???). And with Bush Sr and Carter both up there in age, I wouldn't be surprised (if I were you) to see more ex-presidents dying off in the near future.

Oh, and for those that talk about how they've worked with the government workers who sit around watching tv, and talking long distance to their families, I ask you this........how long ago are we talking?? Cuz I'm here to tell you that the only tv we have in my shop is used for training videos (though our boss is cool enough to let us watch commercial movie videotapes during lunch, if we want to), and the only phone that has long distance capabilities is on the boss's desk.....and you'd better log every long distance call you make, or your butt's gonna be in a crack when they find out who placed a call without logging it......nevermind the fact that it's a personal call!! Yeah, maybe the "white collar" workers have been that way in the past, but please don't lump all federal government employees in that basket. I'm blue collar, a working man with dirt under his fingernails (amongst other things!!), and we're out there humpin' it every day we work! The guys I work with work every bit as hard as anyone "on the outside", at similar wages (wage grade studies, which our pay is based on, take into account what a similar worker outside the base makes) and with similar skill levels. And yet, the A76 studies the government continues to conduct will still give a chance to an outside company to take over our jobs, if they can perform the work at a cheaper rate. The only problem with that is that it's been a continuing problem that (quite often) the outside companies "low-ball" their bid, in order to take over the work, knowing full well that the federal government usually SUCKS at writing contracts, and that they'll make up the loss on the original bid with the "add-on's" that will come later! Yeah, let's displace some pretty loyal government employees, stick in a contractor, who will end up doing less work for more money, and not give a damn about the base or community! 🙁

So please, before you make a blanket statement about federal employees, especially during this administration, know what you're talking about! In fact, I'm here to tell you that having worked under both the Bush Jr and Clinton administrations, that we got a LOT more time off around the holidays under Slick Willy than we ever have under W!! :roll:

 

[nweaver]

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.

Which is why we need RESPONSIBLE government. Not like what he had in Washington the last 60 years.

fixed...we haven't had decent goverment for an even longer time then that imho

 

[DealMonkey]

I wasn't even mad about this until I realized I wasn't getting any mail today! Bah!

 

[my sons father]

I'll take the day off when Bush dies.....
and drink a toast to how it happened!

 

[TruePaige]

...I am waiting on AT FS Loot...bad federal holiday! Bad! >_<

 

[JD50]

Originally posted by: my sons father
I'll take the day off when Bush dies.....
and drink a toast to how it happened!

Wow, 2nd post in 10 minutes wishing that Bush was dead. You should seek help.

 

[LumbergTech]

Originally posted by: Genx87

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

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.

we would probably also get about 10 times the junkmail

 

[feralkid]

Originally posted by: JD50

Originally posted by: my sons father
I'll take the day off when Bush dies.....
and drink a toast to how it happened!

Wow, 2nd post in 10 minutes wishing that Bush was dead. You should seek help.

Yeah, lock him up in Gitmo!

 

[WHAMPOM]

Originally posted by: randym431
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!

If you must know, "sigh". 😛This Bush's subliminal message to his successor to do as Ford did and give Bush a pardon too.:evil:😀

 

[WHAMPOM]

Originally posted by: JD50

Originally posted by: my sons father
I'll take the day off when Bush dies.....
and drink a toast to how it happened!

Wow, 2nd post in 10 minutes wishing that Bush was dead. You should seek help.

Thank you for your offer of help. What is your plan for the assassination. Spray his brushing tools with the bird flu?

 

[WHAMPOM]

I have it! :thumbsup:Insert "onomatopoeia" INTO HIS NEXT SPEECH AND WATCH HIS TONGUE EXPLODE! :gift:You are just wound up too tight JD50.:music: Disclaimer. This message refers to no one living, dead, unborn, fictional, supernatural, devine, or completely imaginary. Though people too full of themselves may have a slight claim to a resemblance.😀

 

[JEDIYoda]

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.

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

I would hardly say that when Clinton was in office we had any sort of responsible government...too funny...lol

 

[Triumph]

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.

The cuts SHOULD happen to the waste (and there is ALOT of it, there is an endless supply of options), but they don't, because democratically siding individuals are (to use your words) easily manipulated by threats to their precious social programs.

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.

So Democrats are for sensible government, and Republicans aren't? Who defines sensible? A Democrat? Well if you're writing the definitions, of course you'll always be the one providing the "sensible" government.