Trump has a plan for government workers. They’re not going to like it.

a reply to: TrueBrit

sorry man, had to reply to your incorrect assessment saying government workers dont make money disappear. They absolutely do.

I have worked as a civilian for the military...and i heard plenty of stories from people who witnessed first hand the kinds of abuse and waste that would make your head spin.

in one particular story, a guy who wasnt even very high up in the GS system was a manager of a particular department. This guy had the audacity to steal funds from operational expenses and spend nearly 50,000 USD on fixing up a couple of his cars with rims, stereo systems and other things...and thats only what they could prove. They did a sting on him lasting several months (that cost us more money obviously) and to top it all off, even though he was fired for doing it, he was able to get a job at another base in another department!

i also heard many stories about guys clocking in and going to play golf all day then coming back just in time to clock out. Yes, obviously some of these guys were caught, but the punishment, if you can even call it that, was laughable. The guy playing golf all day got relocated back to the States.

so....yes, HUUUUGE government waste is perpetrated all the time by fairly low level civilian wage earners. It all adds up.

a reply to: tribal

I'm sure all that is true. Keep in mind if CEO does a $h!t job, he has a multi million $ parachute waiting for him/her.

The point here is that government workers have historically enjoyed a great deal of job security--so much that it is considered almost impossible to fire them for any but the most outrageous deeds. Further, the benefits are tremendous. There was a time when government workers were rather low paid compared to the rest of the populace, so this job security and wide-ranging benefits was considered compensation for that fact. No, you weren't going to get rich, but you had a steady full-time job with a pension at the end of it. In effect, civil servants traded risk for security. But at some point this rationale of relatively low pay with lots of bennies and job security changed to "we need to attract good people with competitive salaries." So today if you look at the GS pay scale, it is the envy of workers everywhere. The "government class" is the new Middle Class. Unfortunately, many of the employees who were "low pay and deserved it" are still in the government workforce with enough seniority to coast to retirement without anyone being able to do anything about sub-standard performance.

These facts are not unnoticed by the bureaucrats who run the government show. They ave never met a tax they didn't like or a government program that did not "need" to be started because some pressure group felt the government "should really serve this special need." So as a result we have, for example, thousands of government funded "Senior Centers" that no senior ever asked for, but if were on the chopping block the SJW's advocating such unproven needs would scream bloody murder. You want to know how government grows? That's how.

The clever way to do this is a "divide and conquer" strategy. The idea is to take a population and divide in such a way that the divided portion has certain unmet needs. The above-mentioned "senior centers" are a case in point. "Seniors" have become "special people" who need "special services." As a senior myself I have never net a senior who asked for a "senior center" but there are those in the community who have decided this would be a good idea. so they have lobbied the city to spend prodigious amounts of money on a senior center I will never go to. And once built it must be funded, and were the funding to stop, all hell breaks loose. After all, having a "senior center" is a "good thing," right? Who could object? Are you an uncaring monster who would rip the precious senior center from those most vulnerable in our population? How could you?

That's what Trump is targeting, the ability to make government more flexible, the ability to axe unnecessary programs. But if you want a more efficient government, that's what has to happen. The US government bureaucracy is so vast and so entrenched that no president so far has been able to curtail it, and most didn't want to. So when you say "government employees won't like" the changes he proposes, I'm not surprised. Their beds are very comfy and they do not want to be disturbed.

a reply to: seasonal

I have waited YEARS for this! Public sector unions are a bane on American taxpayers and represent a massive conflict of interest. I absolutely applaud President Trump on changing this.

The future is bright.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: seasonal

I think that billionaires should not have a say in what they will and will not be taxed.

Again...this is all exactly as planned, nothing to see here folks.

Yeah, how dare they have any say over money they earned! :sarcasm:

well it`s a good start and about time, automatic raises for incompetent government employees who can't be fired, no more.

a reply to: Tardacus

I'm not sure but is the hard to fire and raises thing part of the union. What you get now is with out a union is, no cost of living raises, crappy health care, no job security, no grievance process if the company/manger breaks rules. Yes let's get the becasue they should have the crap the private sector has????? Edit, 401k in place of pension and health care after retirement.

well it`s a good start and about time, automatic raises for incompetent government employees who can't be fired, no more.

a reply to: seasonal

In other words, the people allegedly working for us (us being the American tax payers) now get to work like us, with personal responsibility and accountability being the norm.

a reply to: seasonal

Sounds terrific! You mean gov employees will no longer be coddled and given raises no matter how inept they are?

I am..actually scared for Trump at this point. By attempting to do the right thing, he is going to piss off A LOT LOT LOT of people...

a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha

Does anyone have any proof that these govt employees are less, well, fired than average private sector employees?

This is ATS after all, are we buying into this just because?

a reply to: seasonal

People that work for the public sector should make LESS than the people in the private sector. A Government job should be more about service than pay checks.

Looks like many gov. agencies are going to be farmed out to private contractors.

Fine with me, I jumped thru the SBA hoops years ago to be able to do business with both the state and feds.

www.sba.gov...

I might even be hiring helpers soon....

a reply to: seasonal

It's not a crackpot theory..

It's pretty damn difficult to get fired from a government position. Hell, go open a HS government class textbook.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6

In other words, the people allegedly working for us (us being the American tax payers) now get to work like us, with personal responsibility and accountability being the norm.

Finally a broom that may sweep clean ...

a reply to: olaru12

Looks like many gov. agencies are going to be farmed out to private contractors.

Yes. That is how I believe the Republican Party has become split. One wing wants to use govt as a shopping center for businesses. Keep all the agencies, but let taxpayer dollars flow through those agencies to business. The other wing, the now dominant (with Trump's election) wing, is the Koch ideology wing that wants to abolish all of the federal govt except for military (and courts). The Koch wing will use lower taxes and privatization as a means to eventually "starve the beast", so that in the end only the military and courts are left. There would not be any govt left for business, except for the military.

originally posted by: seasonal
Looks like Trump wants to make the govt worker the same as the private sector worker.

President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress are drawing up plans to take on the government bureaucracy they have long railed against, by eroding job protections and grinding down benefits that federal workers have received for a generation.

Hiring freezes, an end to automatic raises, a green light to fire poor performers, a ban on union business on the government’s dime and less generous pensions — these are the contours of the blueprint emerging under Republican control of Washington in January.

Trump may be able to make changes becasue he is an outsider and may have repub's support on the legislative side.

These changes were once unthinkable to federal employees, their unions and their supporters in Congress. But Trump’s election as an outsider promising to shake up a system he told voters is awash in “waste, fraud and abuse” has conservatives optimistic that they could do now what Republicans have been unable to do in the 133 years since the civil service was created.

www.washingtonpost.com...



Well, how about give them private sector wages then? On average, actual professionals in the public sector make far far less money compared to the same level of position and responsibility in the private sector.

Part of the counterbalance for their public service, and often very modest salaries, is they get offered good benefits, a little more security in some circumstances, etc.

a reply to: seasonal

😄😄😄

The post office is going to be completely abandoned by February.

Nobody "working" there is employable in any other circumstance.

originally posted by: MiloTheMarauder
How 'bout they set term limits for the senate and house too.

Term limits sound good at first, but actually give more power to lobbyists and special interests. I used to be 200% for term limits. Now, I'm luke warm.

When you limit a congressmen or a senator to 2 terms or whatever, they're going to be trying to please those lobbyists (who don't have term limits) to score those lucrative private sector "consulting" jobs after they leave office.

They're also not as beholden to their constituents. "What, I have one, maybe two terms? If they hate me its not like I'm trying to keep my seat..."

a reply to: tribal

Yes, that is fraud.

However, I will bet you any money you care to lay on it, that when compared with ORGANISED scams, like supply to military and government organisations from private companies, that there are billions of dollars of overspend, and billions of dollars of unpaid taxes, companies banking off shore, and being owned by members of the government or its infrastructures which is a clear failure of the conflict of interest margin.

Makes your example of the 50k upgrade car seem irrelevant by comparison.

Look at the Iraq war and the private companies involved with that mess. They are just one example, and there were billions of dollars of insurance jiggery pokery involved with that.