I agree. Federal employees have always had a security blanket and are currently making more than their private sector counterparts in most cases. I think they are part of the problem.

 

Interesting take by George Will in his column today...to the effect that since governmental workers have been able to unionize, they vote for and spend their union money on those candidates who will take care of them financially, thus bloating the wages and benefits as the cycle continues. This is OK except for one reason, he says: it is the public's money that pays the wages and benefits that are artificially too high.

The focus of the Tea Party members is "cuts."

 

Which of these would be off-limits?

 

Raising the SS retirement age to 70.

 

Cutting military pay.

 

Adding deductibles to VA benefits.

 

Cut Medicare benefits.

 

Reduce farm subsidies

 

Defense

 

Move Social Security to a need-based ie welfare-like system

 

mortgage interest deduction

 

Only ones off limits to me would be cutting military pay and additng deductibles to VA benefits. Everything else is ok with me.

If we would tighten up the eligibility, enforce the rules already in place and weed out the fraud, we wouldn't have to make so many cuts.

You may be confusing deductible with co-pay. Deductible is a threshhold that must be met (often something like $500 or $1000) and that figure must be paid by the member each plan year before benefits kick in. Co-payments are paid by members after the deductible has been reached; and are typically a fixed price per service ($10 for an office visit, $250 for an ER visit, etc.).

 

I was thinking copayments as opposed to deductibles. However, in any plan I have had copayments have nothing to do with whether or not your deductible is met or not. I prefer copays because the people who use the service more, pay more.

I'm disappointed that they haven't explored the streamlining of services and departments. Implement one database for all social services programs, etc. Eliminate redundant positions within different programs. If a person comes in to apply for aid, they deal with one caseworker for all services they are eligible for. It would also (if done my way ) allow employers to enter wage and eligibility criteria online. (All that's an example). This would 1) eliminate payroll & benefits immediately and 2) help in curbing fraud and abuse. Both are two of the hugest areas of waste in the government.

Not on the list, salaries and pension of federal government employees. I would look at this first. If the rest of us are going to continue to see social security get cut, federal employees should have their salaries and pensions cut also.

 

Did any one see the article on the front page of USA today yesterday. Government salaries have apparently gone up a good bit since Obama's been in office. Said that the number of people making over $100,000 a year has more than doubled. I think our federal employees should be well compensated, it would be stupid not to. With that said I don't think we should throw money at people, especially when knowing that they'll be well compensated in the private sector after they leave the federal job behind.

Did any one see the article on the front page of USA today yesterday. Government salaries have apparently gone up a good bit since Obama's been in office. Said that the number of people making over $100,000 a year has more than doubled. I think our federal employees should be well compensated, it would be stupid not to. With that said I don't think we should throw money at people, especially when knowing that they'll be well compensated in the private sector after they leave the federal job behind.

 

Not sure, but could some of those figures include a good number of people who've "tenured" themselves up into that bracket?

If we would tighten up the eligibility, enforce the rules already in place and weed out the fraud, we wouldn't have to make so many cuts.

 

Total right wing hype IMO. Every Congressman in office would love to find fraud and trumpet it in their next campaign. This is a straw man argument if there ever was one.

Also every one talks about welfare reform etc. Bottom line is it's not being done, and the system is consistently abused. I say get rid of it all together and come back with something that can be better regulated. Just too many people out there that are gainfully employed via the tax payers, and their own non taxed personal enterprise.

Not sure, but could some of those figures include a good number of people who've "tenured" themselves up into that bracket?

 

I've taken that into account, and notice I didn't place the blame on Obama but noted the time span in which it's taken place. It just seems as though there are serious issues with spending, given this type of data during our current economic climate.

Total right wing hype IMO. Every Congressman in office would love to find fraud and trumpet it in their next campaign. This is a straw man argument if there ever was one.

 

I completely and wholeheartedly disagree with you. Even the Mafia is in the Medicaid fraud business--it is so lucrative.

^ Expose it and you will be a US Senator the next election. Guaranteed. People would LOVE to see rampant fraud exposed and you would be a folk hero.

I think everything should be on the table, and I applaud the two committee chairs for taking a completly unpopular position..........now let the sides show why nothing should be cut, and as a matter of fact, they probably need to add a few things, as we don't want anybody left out.

I am of the firm belief that SS needs to be phased out completely.

 

I'm not disagreeing, but what happens to the money paid into the system by those of us who've been paying into the system for 20+ years? Do we get a refund of what we've paid in? Would we only phase it out for those under a certain age?

Of that list, these are straight up off limits...

 

-Military pay.

-VA benefits.

-Medicare benefits

 

Of those things on the list, that should happen ...

 

-Farm subsidies should be eliminated.

-Social Security deduction should be eliminated and all contributions made by those still working given back so the money can be invested properly.

-All deductions should be eliminated and a flat tax installed.

 

Defense needs to be managed better. If managed better, cuts would not be unnecessary.