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Has the Sequestration Effected You?

  • Yes

    Votes: 9 23.7%
  • No

    Votes: 29 76.3%

  • Total voters
    38
Oregon pulls the same crap every few years. Give us a tax increase or we'll have to close schools, policing, fire dept's and release prisoners.

So, a couple elections later they repeat the threat! Wait, what happened to the taxes we gave you last time to fund the schools, police and fire dept's and jails, you wasted it elsewhere because if you fix those things that are important to us then you couldn't blackmail us over them every few years.

Ever had a wife or brother in law who ALWAYS had money problems? No matter how much money you send them (as you worked two jobs) they never seem to get their finances in order? Why should they, you're keeping them afloat. You could work three jobs and send it all to them and it would be wasted, and he'd still be calling you because his truck broke down again.

But now we have the POTUS and US Senators purposely pulling this crap, little kids will suffer, millions of jobs lost, the environment, can't keep the Mil going, dogs and cats will have flea infestations, etc.

No budgets passed in four years, a trillion in the red every year and they can't afford WH tours and keep parks open. I call BS.
 
I think there are some misconceptions being bantied about here. Certainly there are abusers of the system, but some of these cuts are affecting highly skilled and extensively trained technical experts. Again, I know there are abusers but I will say that I have worked with some government employees who work tirelessly to meet goals. I've been with people who work on weekends and for 10 to 12 hours a day without receiving overtime to support various missions and projects.

As just one example, those who refuel submarine and aircraft carrier nuclear reactors are not bums or abusers. They are highly trained technical experts. To say that they are sucking off of the government teat is an insult to anyone who believe that they are doing the right thing in their job. Another example is hazardous material workers. To lump these people and projects into something that is a waste of time of somehow, reciepients of welfare is just plain stupid.

The truth is that the sequester is the wrong way to do business. Some of the same people who scream about rapidly completing the cleanup efforts at Hanford and Umatilla, will also scream that they don't want any money spent on the projects. You simply cannot lump welfare reciepients together or all government workers and contractors together.

You know whose fault these cuts are? The same administration's that has failed to have a budget passed for the last, hmmm, what is it now almost 5 years. The sequestration was a brainfart of Bwana Obama and now he is trying to blame it on everyone else. Of course congress shares a lot of the blame as well. They can't balance a check book folks, I say we make the house and senate a revolving door affair until we are happy with the way things are.
 
Didn’t the “leaders” of Enron and other companies go to prison for doing something similar to this? They spent money like doped out rock stars while gutting the company and ripping off employees, pension plans, contractors, etc.

So why won’t the administration suffer the same consequences for pulling funding from public-facing services while maintaining their high-flying lifestyle, travel and party schedule and all the non-essential activities and expenditures?

When the government shut down under Clinton he did the closest to honorable thing he could and focused on minimizing disruption of essential services. How sad is it that we can use Clinton as an example now?
 
I have not yet, but if they screw with my Va disability or GI bill, which I have no doubt is coming, it's gonna hurt. Like living on the street with a family of 4 kind of hurt.
Well, tuition assistance is gone already. All my post-deployment friends living off the GI Bill and going to school with the tuition assistance, they're basically out on the street.
 
You know whose fault these cuts are? The same administration's that has failed to have a budget passed for the last, hmmm, what is it now almost 5 years. The sequestration was a brainfart of Bwana Obama and now he is trying to blame it on everyone else. Of course congress shares a lot of the blame as well. They can't balance a check book folks, I say we make the house and senate a revolving door affair until we are happy with the way things are.

The revolving door just makes it more and more expensive, considering they each get a lifetime pension as soon as they've served one term.
 
I'm not on the government teet! But Obama's administration has directed agencies to make it painful.

This is BS. The real situation is this... Each agency (DoD, FAA, FDA,,etc) had to cut their budget by a certain amount. Some had started cutting back but in most cases the only way they could "save" money was to cut the federal workers days. Each federal agency did the numbers and came out with a different number of day they would have to furlough each federal employee. Some Federal agencies only have to cut a few day from each employee , other agencies have to cut a max of 22 days.
The cuts will be one day per week..which amounts to a 20% weekly pay cut for the federal worker. The actual "day off" will be staggered through out the office among the workers so offices will be open, only they will have 20% less staff.

As for the actual payless days , each agency will decided when to start them and all the payless days have to be taken before the end of the federal year which ends on 30 Sept 2013. The individual agencies have to give the federal workers 30 days notice before they start
the payless day process. Obama has said nothing about making it painful. The Federal workers are as unhappy as you are about the state of things and their 20% pay cut. Also they cannot take a sick day or leave day on the their payless pay.


What you will start to see 1st is a slow down in travel ,,,flying as the FAA air traffic controllers will be 20% less... TSA also 20% less workers...Border Control and Pass Port applications slow down. Goods comming into the USA by Ports... slow down...20% less inspectors... same thing with federal Food Inspection... 20% less people per week to be on the job to get the work done.

My guess/take is that you won't start seeing any real effects until May/June. Only when things get bad and the American people see via the news and are actually personally impacted by the lack of services will they final put pressure on the government officals to do somthing and they will finally act.

Most people have no problem with a government shut down, but they will start complaining to high heven if their vacation is affected or can't get a burger at McDonalds!
 
This is BS. The real situation is this... Each agency (DoD, FAA, FDA,,etc) had to cut their budget by a certain amount. Some had started cutting back but in most cases the only way they could "save" money was to cut the federal workers days. Each federal agency did the numbers and came out with a different number of day they would have to furlough each federal employee. Some Federal agencies only have to cut a few day from each employee , other agencies have to cut a max of 22 days.
The cuts will be one day per week..which amounts to a 20% weekly pay cut for the federal worker. The actual "day off" will be staggered through out the office among the workers so offices will be open, only they will have 20% less staff.

As for the actual payless days , each agency will decided when to start them and all the payless days have to be taken before the end of the federal year which ends on 30 Sept 2013. The individual agencies have to give the federal workers 30 days notice before they start
the payless day process. Obama has said nothing about making it painful. The Federal workers are as unhappy as you are about the state of things and their 20% pay cut. Also they cannot take a sick day or leave day on the their payless pay.


What you will start to see 1st is a slow down in travel ,,,flying as the FAA air traffic controllers will be 20% less... TSA also 20% less workers...Border Control and Pass Port applications slow down. Goods comming into the USA by Ports... slow down...20% less inspectors... same thing with federal Food Inspection... 20% less people per week to be on the job to get the work done.

My guess/take is that you won't start seeing any real effects until May/June. Only when things get bad and the American people see via the news and are actually personally impacted by the lack of services will they final put pressure on the government officals to do somthing and they will finally act.

Most people have no problem with a government shut down, but they will start complaining to high heven if their vacation is affected or can't get a burger at McDonalds!


[h=1]Park ranger: Supervisors pushed sequester cuts that visitors would see[/h] By Judson Berger
Published March 09, 2013




  • NPS_graphic.jpg
    AP


Another federal employee has come forward to claim the Obama administration resisted efforts to ease the impact of sequester.
A U.S. park ranger, who did not wish to be identified, told FoxNews.com that supervisors within the National Park Service overruled plans to deal with the budget cuts in a way that would have had minimal impact on the public. Instead, the source said, park staff were told to cancel special events and cut "interpretation services" -- the talks, tours and other education services provided by local park rangers.
"Apparently, they want the public to feel the pain," the ranger said.
The National Park Service is among many federal agencies warning of a major impact from the sequester cuts, which took effect last Friday. The agency has warned of delayed access to portions of Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks, closed campgrounds at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, reduced hours at the Grand Canyon visitor center and other ramifications.
The Obama administration says these cuts must be made in order to make the $85 billion in cuts from Congress' failure to avert the sequester. At the NPS, the agency was dealing with an across-the-board 5 percent cut.
Republicans have claimed the administration is making some cuts in order to exaggerate the impact. Lawmakers this past week revealed a leaked email from the Agriculture Department in which a field officer appeared to tell his team that he was instructed not to contradict the bosses' warnings about the cuts.
At the Park Service, the alleged incident occurred in one region and it's unclear whether other divisions were given similar guidance.
But a Park Service spokesman told FoxNews.com he's "never heard of guidance given like that."
The spokesman said that like other agencies, the Park Service was absorbing a 5 percent cut in just seven months. It was also being forced to cut seasonal employees, which make up a big part of the department's labor costs. Doing this, he explained, would impact "interpretive programs and public events."
But he denied the claim there was any directive to make those cuts more visible to the public.
"There's not a ton of flexibility," he said, noting that most cuts will end up impacting visitors at some level. "Everything in parks is geared toward either the preservation of the resources or the needs of the visitors."
Joan Anzelmo, a former park superintendent in Colorado, also said that while it's possible one specific location was giving guidance to make sure the public sees the cuts, she doesn't think that was happening across the country. She also said any cuts to services and staffing would be made in large part because the parks budgets do not have much "wiggle room."
"I would be hard pressed to be able to make those cuts as a superintendent and not have an impact to the public," said Anzelmo, now a spokeswoman for The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.
Nonetheless, memos have surfaced from National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis appearing to show the agency put a priority on telling the public how the cuts would affect them.
One Jan. 25 memo, which was obtained and published by the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, showed Jarvis directing regional directors to carefully explain the "specific and tangible results" of the cuts as they submitted their cost-saving plans.
Jarvis wrote that agency officials expected the cuts to result in reduced visitor services, shortened seasons and other visible changes. "Parks must be specific in their description and include the number of visitors affected and an indication of the effect on nearby communities and businesses," he wrote. "All other organizations should describe impacts in terms of diminished performance and reduced administrative services and oversight."
Another memo, dated Feb. 26, railed against the "senseless, across-the-board budget cuts." Jarvis, in that memo, described "long-term and wide-ranging effects," while pledging to try to "mitigate" the impact.
The ranger who spoke to FoxNews.com, though, stressed that it was still just a 5 percent cut.
"It's obvious that they want the public to feel the pain in order to push this agenda that Washington wants," the ranger said. "A lot of these parks can absorb these cuts without the public's visit being affected."
 
The revolving door just makes it more and more expensive, considering they each get a lifetime pension as soon as they've served one term.
That is another thing that needs to change too. It is a public service, not a career. I think we need to treat it like jury duty. They shouldn't be allowed to increase their own pay (conflict of interest) and if there is any vote it should be right along with the national presidential campaign. I believe they would understand real quick how their employers truly feel about them.
 
[h=1]Park ranger: Supervisors pushed sequester cuts that visitors would see[/h] Published March 09, 2013




Another federal employee has come forward to claim the Obama administration resisted efforts to ease the impact of sequester.
A U.S. park ranger, who did not wish to be identified, told FoxNews.com that supervisors within the National Park Service overruled plans to deal with the budget cuts in a way that would have had minimal impact on the public. Instead, the source said, park staff were told to cancel special events and cut "interpretation services" -- the talks, tours and other education services provided by local park rangers.
The Obama administration says these cuts must be made in order to make the $85 billion in cuts from Congress' failure to avert the sequester. At the NPS, the agency was dealing with an across-the-board 5 percent cut.
But a Park Service spokesman told FoxNews.com he's "never heard of guidance given like that."
The spokesman said that like other agencies, the Park Service was absorbing a 5 percent cut in just seven months. "I would be hard pressed to be able to make those cuts as a superintendent and not have an impact to the public," said Anzelmo, now a spokeswoman for The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.
Another memo, dated Feb. 26, railed against the "senseless, across-the-board budget cuts." Jarvis, in that memo, described "long-term and wide-ranging effects," while pledging to try to "mitigate" the impact.
The ranger who spoke to FoxNews.com, though, stressed that it was still just a 5 percent cut.
"It's obvious that they want the public to feel the pain in order to push this agenda that Washington wants," the ranger said. "A lot of these parks can absorb these cuts without the public's visit being affected."

Don't get me wrong I am no supporter of the White House or our elected officials. They all are playing "chicken" and "who will blink first" with our Country and the American people being used as the ping pong balls in their game!
These 5% cuts translate into a one day a week/20% cut of pay for every day/work week the Federal worker has to experience. You can't cut a workforce by 20% and not have an impact on the public. This is only the impact on the federal worker and does not even address the the indirect federal services/programs cut. Both Political parties know that they won't come to the table until some outside force (the fed up American people) demand they do something... and their counting on it...thats their plan. I agree with this article the whole purpose of this agenda is to make the American people feel "pain" and demand it to stop. This is a new "low" for a way to run a government! Government by blackmail, threats, and cuts of service to its citizens.
 
I'm active duty military. Biggest thing right now is that my Tuition Assistance is no longer. Politicians have no issues messing with our pay and benefits, but according to those like Pelosi, cutting congressional pay and benefits would be "demeaning" and they are above that...
 
I am really looking for just yes or no answers and was hoping to get a baseline started, then if it continues, ask again in 3-6 months. I still plan too, but I guess I was ignorant thinking we could just have a thread with simple yes/no answers and maybe a few examples. Oh well, such are forum posts and the poll seems to be working well :D:D
 
I am feeling the effects of the sequestration.

I work in video games, I've seen that since the start of it, daily player counts for my game are up, which directly correlates to increased revenue.

I've had a friend tell me that her husband was let go from his .gov contractor job the day prior to the start of the sequestration. From making satellites to laid the eff off. Never met him, but that would suck.
 
Don't get me wrong I am no supporter of the White House or our elected officials. They all are playing "chicken" and "who will blink first" with our Country and the American people being used as the ping pong balls in their game!
These 5% cuts translate into a one day a week/20% cut of pay for every day/work week the Federal worker has to experience. You can't cut a workforce by 20% and not have an impact on the public. This is only the impact on the federal worker and does not even address the the indirect federal services/programs cut. Both Political parties know that they won't come to the table until some outside force (the fed up American people) demand they do something... and their counting on it...thats their plan. I agree with this article the whole purpose of this agenda is to make the American people feel "pain" and demand it to stop. This is a new "low" for a way to run a government! Government by blackmail, threats, and cuts of service to its citizens.

I think what he was trying to say and where I am at on this issue, is that the government is efficiently using its resources. Right now the DOD is directing the cuts occur in the branches operation & maintainance budget, while for example the Navy is busy spending money to create an office to address hazing.

Rather than doing furlough days or cutting pay they should be looking to trim excess labor from their departments. Back in the day if you worked at GE, every year the bottom 10% in performance was advised that they had better shape up or look for another job. Come the next review you were gone. Government has never been efficient and noble causes get lost in all the pork.
 
I'm active duty military. Biggest thing right now is that my Tuition Assistance is no longer. Politicians have no issues messing with our pay and benefits, but according to those like Pelosi, cutting congressional pay and benefits would be "demeaning" and they are above that...

Here is how Obama repays you for your service.

[h=1]Obama Cuts Funding For Soldiers To Take College Classes, While Funding Education For Illegal Aliens[/h] March 15, 2013

Now that he’s safely installed in the White House for another four years, President Obama and those who share his world view have escalated their attacks on ordinary Americans and, even worse on our service men and women. Just today, we heard from one of our readers, who told us that, even though he is in Afghanistan serving his country, the Administration’s policies mean that he can no longer get tuition assistance. Meanwhile, the Obama administration and Democrat run states like to boast about the fact that they are making more tuition assistance available to illegal aliens.
Mr. Conservative reported that the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction oversees VISTA, a program funded in part by the federally-funded AmeriCorps volunteer program. The WDPI has devoted a substantial portion of its website to the problem of “white privilege.” As a way to “solve” this “problem,” the WDPI says that white volunteers in the program – those giving of their time and effort to help the less fortunate — should wear “white bracelets as a reminder about your privilege.”
In respect to this insult to a racial group in America, Mr. Conservative has heard from an American military man serving in Afghanistan. He writes:
Not only no, but HELL NO. Right now, I am deployed to Afg[hanistan] and can’t take classes because the gov stopped TA [tuition assistance], but illegals get TA and to walk free in the states. NO bracelet for me.
This short note highlights one of the most shocking things about the Obama administration’s priorities. The administration has used the sequester as an excuse to stop tuition assistance to those men and women who, at great risk and discomfort to themselves, serve their country. Just last week, both the Army and the Marines announced that, effective immediately, they are cutting all future tuition assistance to servicemen and women who were planning to enroll in classes. Stars and Stripes reports:

The Army announced Friday it is suspending its tuition assistance program for soldiers newly enrolling in classes due to sequestration and other budgetary pressures.
“This suspension is necessary given the significant budget execution challenges caused by the combined effects of a possible year-long continuing resolution and sequestration,” Paul Prince, an army personnel spokesman at the Pentagon, wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes. “The Army understands the impacts of this action and will re-evaluate should the budgetary situation improve.”
The Army’s announcement follows a similar move by the Marine Corps.
The Army’s tuition assistance program was available for troops to complete a high school diploma, certificate program or college or master’s degree. Under the program, the Army paid 100 percent of the tuition and authorized fees charged by a school up to established limits of $250 per semester hour or credit hour or up to $4,500 per fiscal year.
This is wrong on so many levels. For one thing, it breaks a promise to those men and women who, when they enlisted to serve their country, were told that one of the things they would receive in return was help with their education.
For another thing – and this is what had the letter writer so righteously hot under the collar, even as our federal government purposefully makes the sequester as painful as possible for those whose votes it doesn’t care about, various state governments are boasting that they’re increasing increasing student aid . . . to illegal aliens.
For example, in California’s newly enacted DREAM act means that is has opened its colleges and universities to illegal immigrants. Add to that the fact that the federal government gives some of them temporary legality under its Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and you suddenly have a huge number of new students competing with legal California residents – and with America’s veterans — for college admission and financial aid.
Giving illegal aliens full rights to attend California’s already cash-strapped, overpriced colleges and universities doesn’t come cheap. A study from California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s office predicts that the state will have to pony up an extra $65 million a year by 2016-2017 in order to full higher education benefits to illegal aliens.
The message that the Democrats are sending couldn’t be more clear: They are out to buy votes. One of the ways Democrats at both the state and federal level make this happen is to punish our military, which puts its life on the line and tends to vote Republican, while rewarding illegal aliens, whose very presence in the United States is a criminal activity, but who can be counted on to support the Democrat party in every way possible.
Mr. Conservative supports keeping America a healthy, dynamic country through legal immigration. However, he abhors a political party that encourages illegal activity while breaking its promises to those who put their lives on the line to protect American freedoms.
 
Sequestration is nothing more than a 2% cut in growth. All these agencies are getting just as much money as they did before. The difference is they can only grow at 6% instead of 8%. All this is just more chicken little. Obama is creating another crisis so he can come riding in on this white horse and save the day. Don't forget it's all the republicans fault.
 
I'm a bit late to the post, but yes it has effected me. I work for the Gov, we were told early on our group wouldn't be hit with furlow days. Well, a month later we get an email saying we now have four furlow days. They are trying to figure out the days now, but since we work at sea its a little hard for them to do.
 
Billions/Trillions spend on useless wars for the benefit of the global bankers and we have to worry about these tiny inconvenience cuts only. A ridiculous proposition. Like the Titanic headed for the iceberg and a pack of matches is thrown overboard at the last minute as ballast.

Sequestration is a joke. Only there so the sheep will believe 'something is being done' about the debt.

The truth is if everyone paid an income tax rate of 100% it would take 22 years to pay off our phony debt.

Cutting all entitlements by 50% would only be a START and still wouldn't stop this nations bankruptcy. We are the (violent) parasites of the global community. We contribute very little, use a lot, and in turn offer little slips of paper printed out of thin air.

 
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