so if you combine federal employees and contractors that is 1.4 million people at an average of 120k a year now unemployed saving the US less then 1% of the 35 trillion of the us debt... and at what cost to the country?

how will that affect unemployment? other than adding 1.4 million people to it...
How will that affect health and well being of those family that most likely have medical insurance based on that employment? guess Obama Care is gonna get more recipients... oh wait, you want to fire the people that process those applications
how will that affect the housing market? hint: it wont be good when all those people cant afford the mortgage they have...
How will that affect the economy especially in the DMV where the bulk of them live? restaurants, bars, small business all close because a million people are now unemployed and cant spend what little they have...
Want a replacement Birth certificate? you just fired the people that process that...
new passport? that's already a 3 month wait usually, now that you fired them its a year...
process anything related to Social Security? good luck...
How's that going to help the veterans that are already not getting help they need fast enough?
want more border patrol? they already say they are undermanned? how are you going to secure the border with less when they already say they need more?

this is just off the top of my head...



the immediate impact would be devastating to the states around DC, the long term affects not really even predictable, and all for less than 1% of the debt?

drglnc wrote:

Crap! Now we’re gonna get invaded by the Congo. Raise our taxes please!!!!

HockeyDad wrote:

so if you combine federal employees and contractors that is 1.4 million people at an average of 120k a year now unemployed saving the US less then 1% of the 35 trillion of the us debt... and at what cost to the country?

how will that affect unemployment? other than adding 1.4 million people to it...
How will that affect health and well being of those family that most likely have medical insurance based on that employment? guess Obama Care is gonna get more recipients... oh wait, you want to fire the people that process those applications
how will that affect the housing market? hint: it wont be good when all those people cant afford the mortgage they have...
How will that affect the economy especially in the DMV where the bulk of them live? restaurants, bars, small business all close because a million people are now unemployed and cant spend what little they have...
Want a replacement Birth certificate? you just fired the people that process that...
new passport? that's already a 3 month wait usually, now that you fired them its a year...
process anything related to Social Security? good luck...
How's that going to help the veterans that are already not getting help they need fast enough?
want more border patrol? they already say they are undermanned? how are you going to secure the border with less when they already say they need more?

this is just off the top of my head...



the immediate impact would be devastating to the states around DC, the long term affects not really even predictable, and all for less than 1% of the debt?

drglnc wrote:

Are you arguing for firing them or against?!

How ‘bout we just cut the “nonessential” ones?

HockeyDad wrote:

sure, who decides what is non essential?

Bobby Jo Gentry in Idaho has never left the 30 mile radius of her house... she wont need a passport so close the Consular Affairs at the state department.

Ricky Bobby in Montana only eats veggies he grows and meat he hunts so the USDA can go...


Suzi Que lee never plans to join the military so the VA is a waste of money, it can go

hell, New Mexico has the lowest literacy rate among US states, with only 70.9% of its adult population having basic or below basic literacy skills. so the department of education is clearly failing so let them all go.

We just saw that the SS is useless so fire all of them while we are at it.

Men hate safety sally so Osha can go...

drglnc wrote:

Is this ridiculous to assume that the nation would amortize our debt in one year. But using your numbers that would amount to about$168B in savings. But you left out the rest of the expenses reduced with a 20% across the board cuts. So assuming a budget of $7T a year net annual savings would be $1.4 T.


Yet you still refuse to answer a simple question. How deep should the country go into debt?

Abrignac wrote:

i agree that we need to lessen the debt... i just don't agree that promoting 1.4 million people to unemployed is the answer...

do you think the national debt matters to a guy that gets fired from a stable job because of budget cuts, losses his house, cant get medical treatment cause his insurances is tied to his job, cant feed his kids and is now living in his car with a family of 3 and hoping it doesn't get repo'd? he gonna wake up tomorrow and well... at least the US is in less debt now...

drglnc wrote:

Here’s the thing. I never advocated laying anyone off. That was you in terms of our conversation. I do believe that the number of government workers needs to be reduced. But in my opinion it should be done through attrition coupled with a permanent hiring freeze until some yet to be determined arbitrary number is reached. As workers retire, quit etc.. then their position, if essential, would be filled by a person already on the payroll. The savings would come from trimmed or totally eliminated program spending.

The government should budget in the same manor as you and I and every buisness in the United States. We make choices based on what we can afford. We indulge in what is within our budget and we forego what is not. Generally we do that by prioritizing possibilities and making decisions accordingly. Unfortunately that means that we don’t put a passport office in a location that only gets one customer per year

Again as I stated, there is no short term solution. In fact, it would take 30-40 years to retire the debt and still provide a functional government.

Abrignac wrote:

I agree with pretty much all of this...

the problem is that Trump and the current GOP don't want it to take 30 years... many of them want it on day one of trump 2.0 as do some of the folks in this thread... He even tried making it easier to fire Fed employees as he has discussed gutting 50k employees as quickly as possible and dismantling entire agencies... that isn't a slow burn... that is an in your face fireball.

drglnc wrote:

sure, who decides what is non essential?

Bobby Jo Gentry in Idaho has never left the 30 mile radius of her house... she wont need a passport so close the Consular Affairs at the state department.

Bobby "Bee" Hively in West Virginia only eats veggies he grows and meat he hunts so the USDA can go...


Suzi Que lee never plans to join the military so the VA is a waste of money, it can go

hell, New Mexico has the lowest literacy rate among US states, with only 70.9% of its adult population having basic or below basic literacy skills. so the department of education is clearly failing so let them all go.

We just saw that the SS is useless so fire all of them while we are at it.

Men hate safety sally so Osha can go...

drglnc wrote:

How much deeper in debt should we go before we make meaningful cuts to programs we cannot afford?

Abrignac wrote:

Zero more debt, absent an emergency or necessary war.

rfenst wrote:

Biden’s 2025 budget proposal will only add 1.8 trillion to the national debt. This assumes he gets his massive tax increases passed.

HockeyDad wrote:

As the great Mencken wrote, "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

RayR wrote: