House approves back pay for federal workers

[Cabal]

So, they're effectively on paid vacation?

 

[TaftFan]

Like fuck it was.

So what do you say to those people who need the money, you know, to provide for families?

I'm all for getting rid of federal workers, but cutting off pay without warning is not the right thing to do.

Targeting government workers does nothing to address the symptom behind the fact there are so many of them.

 

[kcchiefs6465]

So what do you say to those people who need the money, you know, to provide for families?

I'm all for getting rid of federal workers, but cutting off pay without warning is not the right thing to do.

Targeting government workers does nothing to address the symptom behind the fact there are so many of them.

First, I understand what you are saying. I am sympathetic towards those who find themselves in a bind because of a moment's notice suspension of employment or pay. In my ideal scenario to avoid a default and restrain government to its proper confines I'd want a transitioning period for all those who have become accustomed to government loot. Simply pulling out the rug beneath people would be much more painful than needed though less painful than a hyper-inflated currency or default.

As to what I would say to the people who need money to provide for their families; it would be short and to the point. Get real goddamn jobs why don't you?

Not that I am particularly hostile to their position individually but collectively, they are at best weights around the throat of productivity. At worst, and I do believe this to be true, they are siphoning productivity, or in other words, leeching off of the sweat the average American puts in week in and week out.

It is more about those who can't help themselves than it is those who consciously retain employment where they are. I'd also note the actual back pay money will be by and large swindled, flat out wasted, or otherwise simply regarded as another man's money. Frugality be damned and I'd rather not even know of the dumbass ways the money is spent.

 

[MRK]

So what do you say to those people who need the money, you know, to provide for families?

I'm all for getting rid of federal workers, but cutting off pay without warning is not the right thing to do.

Targeting government workers does nothing to address the symptom behind the fact there are so many of them.

When I was 18, 19 and 20 I had relatively comfy summer government jobs in various departments where I was paid $12 an hour. If I had worked there full time it would have been closer to $20 plus cadillac health benefits and I was guaranteed a job. Not bad for fresh out of college - especially considering this was post crash.

Instead of taking the public sector job that paid above fair wage for my labor I went into the private sector making half as much. I even went unemployed for a few months while looking for a job while I could have easily made a few phone calls and fixed my situation by signing up with the government.

I knew it was the right move because there is job security in actually producing something.

So I have no sympathy for these people.

If a young kid could figure out that there was something wrong with the situation then there is no excuse for a well aged adult not to at least put back a bunch of savings for when the gravy train tax stream comes to an end.

 

[seapilot]

Furlough??? Loving It!!!!! The people that still have to stay on the job are no doubt jealous.

This is how most federal employees probably view it. They know the Fed will continue to create funny money so no worry for them not getting paid. Private workers and business hear furlough they know its a nice way of saying they are terminated.

 

[Danke]

Which one do you want in ? If you take me along as tour guide I can show you access.I have special privledges and bolt cutters.LOL

Shark Valley. I want to go for a bike ride there.

 

[Cleaner44]

Doesn't this still have to go to the Senate and then Obama?

Haven't the Democrats been threatening to block and veto anything piecemeal?

If Obama signs this, how does he explain not signing a bill that singles out other issues such as national parks?

 

[cornell]

So basically furloughed federal employees are getting extra paid vacation days this year?

 

[Dr.3D]

So what do you say to those people who need the money, you know, to provide for families?

I'm all for getting rid of federal workers, but cutting off pay without warning is not the right thing to do.

Targeting government workers does nothing to address the symptom behind the fact there are so many of them.

Let em go on unemployment like everybody else does when they get laid off.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

So what do you say to those people who need the money, you know, to provide for families?

I'm all for getting rid of federal workers, but cutting off pay without warning is not the right thing to do.

Targeting government workers does nothing to address the symptom behind the fact there are so many of them.

WTF are you talking about? In the real economy, people aren't guaranteed shit. People are laid off every day. And if you are being paid good money with benefits and you can't last a week without pay, then you deserve whatever happens to you when the government tit runs dry!

 

[tod evans]

So what do you say to those people who need the money, you know, to provide for families?

Get a job!

I'm all for getting rid of federal workers, but cutting off pay without warning is not the right thing to do.

Right for whom? Cutting federal expenditure is the "right thing to do", especially given that the USA is broke.

Targeting government workers does nothing to address the symptom behind the fact there are so many of them.

No but it's a start. Chicken/egg............

 

[better-dead-than-fed]

So what do you say to those people who need the money, you know, to provide for families?

I say to them, there is no natural right to get the things you "need", and the Constitution does not promise job security to government employees. If you want handouts from a government, move to the Soviet Union.

cutting off pay without warning is not the right thing to do.

They've been warned for 224 years, since 1789:

All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives....

And if that somehow wasn't enough, the current shutdown hereby warns future government employees.

Targeting government workers does nothing to address the symptom behind the fact there are so many of them.

Anything that deters people from taking government jobs helps.

Let every government employee be on notice: tyrannical-majority attempts to enlarge government can backfire. Suck up the blowback.

800,000 bums weaned from the teat.

800,000 drones disarmed.

 

[better-dead-than-fed]

if they didn't pass this- their work would be considered slave labor and illegal under the 14th amendment.

13th, but they aren't working or being compelled to do anything, so how would there be a violation?

Eventually he will post an explanation though.

Inexcusable.

 

[MelissaWV]

It's odd to read this thread. I realize most of you do make a distinction between jobs and Government jobs, but if some Government agency swooped in and told you that you'd be off your job for a few weeks (starting immediately) but don't worry they'll pay you afterwards, how prepared would you be? How okay with it would you be? We'd see thread after thread about the injustice of it.

There's also this perception that those 800,000 people have oodles of money. Cafeteria workers, lab techs at the VA who draw blood, and a whole lot of other jobs are not exactly ways to get rich. The big-salary wastes of space are still working and Congress (unless they opted themselves out) is still getting paid.

If you're going to compare this to layoffs, okay. Where is the severance pay? Years ago, when both sources of income in my household died out due to layoffs on the same day, we had weeks of pay to figure things out with. At that time we WERE living paycheck to paycheck.

Does that mean we should fling money at these jobs? No, and I agree that if this went on for a long time those jobs would be a little less attractive as time goes on, but merely leaving the AGENCIES in place with no workers is the backwards way of doing it. All that will happen is that more and more workers will be deemed essential and brought back on to work, or those on the job will half-ass it so mistakes can be blamed on the lack of agencies.

If you really think that wars will end, drones will be disarmed, and the Government will be spending way less money because of this, I have to question your intelligence. Were SS checks withheld at the start of this month? Have Medicare and Medicaid stopped --- oh wait those just got bigger! Are all the troops home? Has Kerry stopped globetrotting to make deals with foreign nations?

Oh but someone who works as a tour guide lost their job temporarily.

Well. That victory certainly makes me feel warm and fuzzy, right?

 

[better-dead-than-fed]

I realize most of you do make a distinction between jobs and Government jobs, but if some Government agency swooped in and told you that you'd be off your job for a few weeks (starting immediately) but don't worry they'll pay you afterwards, how prepared would you be? How okay with it would you be? We'd see thread after thread about the injustice of it.

If my employer told me I'd be off my job for a few weeks, I'd be okay with it. If you told your employee he'd be off his job for a few weeks and you were punished for doing that, how okay with it would you be?

Oh but someone who works as a tour guide lost their job temporarily.

Well. That victory certainly makes me feel warm and fuzzy, right?

Anything that weakens demand for government jobs is progress. These people are entitled to nothing. Liberty does not reward people for making bad choices, which all these people did. If they are mentally incompetent enough to take government jobs, they are invalids who can be supported by their families or charities, but not by me.

 

[MelissaWV]

If my employer told me I'd be off my job for a few weeks, I'd be okay with it. If you told your employee he'd be off his job for a few weeks and you were punished for doing that, how okay with it would you be?



Anything that weakens demand for government jobs is progress. These people are entitled to nothing. Liberty does not reward people for making bad choices, which all these people did.

So you don't think this forum would be seething with angry posts if the Government told a company to shut down without paychecks and that they'd just pay them back later whenever Government got around to it? Essentially a 100% tax on your income, to be paid back later without interest?

There is a constant meme that every Government worker makes oodles of money and should have pillowcases full of cash. In reality, there are a number of people for whom that first check of the month would have been their rent money.

I don't say that to feel sorry for these workers, but out of frustration that we're all being played. By the looks of this thread, it's working. This isn't stopping any of the hurtful godawful things the Government does. It's giving them a distraction so they can do more. Punishing a bunch of "non-essential" workers by withholding pay --- and it is still a punishment to be randomly put on paid vacation when you don't know when the "paid" part will kick in --- is a PR move. Closing the parks? They're meant to inconvenience people in very visible ways. You'll notice they're not really addressing the "non-essential" workers who actually might be essential to some. That's bad PR if that gets out.

Again, in the meantime, this is the perfect smokescreen for the really awful shit the Government is still doing. But people want to cheer holding paychecks from some workers. Might as well fire squirt guns at a forest fire.

 

[MelissaWV]

Oh, and before another round of "this would never happen in the private sector!" I do get paid when the office is closed through no fault of my own.

 

[Root]

I have zero sympathy for anyone who works a government job who has to deal with making ends meet during the "shutdown". The US govt has a long track record of lying to everyone (citizens, other governments, themselves), unethical actions and general manipulation. The should have realized who they choose to work for.

That at being said, I hope they all enjoy their taxpayer paid vacations.

 

[better-dead-than-fed]

So you don't think this forum would be seething with angry posts if the Government told a company to shut down without paychecks and that they'd just pay them back later whenever Government got around to it?

The Constitution doesn't authorize the government to do what you're describing, so I'd understand objections in that scenario on constitutional grounds. I think the more fitting analogies are the two I gave in my previous post, 1st paragraph, though.

There is a constant meme that every Government worker makes oodles of money and should have pillowcases full of cash.

Not from me.

In reality, there are a number of people for whom that first check of the month would have been their rent money.

I favor any amount of harm done to them; not as punishment for the past, but as deterrence for the future. My heart doesn't bleed for government, no matter how smiley a face it wears.

 

[tod evans]

Government must be reigned in.

If the whining and sniveling about low level workers in indicative of what's to come all I can say is Lord help us when the real tax-ticks get the ax.