Friday, April 8, 2011

We're 14 trillion in debt and still have Non-Essential employees on the books?

We are 14 TRILLION DOLLARS in debt.  This is the largest debt ever known in this or any other universe. 
Our "leaders" have shown no interest in spending less. 

If you are an American, your share of this is around $50,000.00. 
Discount the retirees, the ill, the lame, and the tax-dodgers, and your share is probably 3 times that much. 

If Congress can't find a compromise between the Republican's pitiful $60 billion in cuts and the Democrats equally pitiful 30 billion, there will be a government shutdown.  All "non-essential" government employees will be sent home. 

Are they trying to tell me that they are still paying "non-essential" employees?  How long have these "non-essential" people been on the payroll? 

4 comments:

JT said...

I always think the same thing during ice storms, when municipalities and school districts say that only essential employees should try to make it to work. How about a noon announcement, "If you are at home because you are considered a non-essential employee...don't bother coming back".

Anonymous said...

If it weren't for non-essential Federal employees, Washington DC's population would be about the same as Drew, Mississippi's.

Hot Sam said...

I'm not going to argue that most DC employees aren't nonessential, but many of those so deemed are people who are processing your tax refund, prosecuting federal criminals, and providing other services that might be important to you.

By all means let's reduce government to its statutory minimum, but realize that many of these employees have Constitutional basis. If I were president, I'd hire 1000 new lawyers and staff for the Justice Department to prosecute bankers who ripped off the taxpayers. Many of them are getting away solely because they didn't steal enough to make it worthwhile to prosecute them.

You've already come up with a list of nonessential agencies, and I concur with most of it.

NickM said...

$14 trillion

That's big and I have a Masters in astrophysics.

That's just over six years of UK's entire GDP.

If I were to be charitable to the Congress Critters they've got rabbit/headlight syndrome.

Gordon Brown over here of course did his bit over here. You know Labour left debts exceeding, if index linked, the cost to the British Empire of WWI.

And of course the Portuguese are thoroughly in the hole and going "Greek". Oh, and Ireland is up a gum tree too. You know there are quarter of a million pound houses in Ireland up for sale for 150,000. They had an insane housing boom funded by cheap credit. British brickies and the like were going to Ireland in a reverse of about 200 years of history. Not anymore. And Spain looks likely to wind-up in queer street along with Italy.

It's like the proverbial drunken sailor who wakes up with an empty wallet and he had a couple of hundred 24 hours ago with one critical difference. The sailor blew his own wad and didn't do it on tick.