One of the problems that Obama´s alarmism machine is running into is people have little sympathy for a government worker losing his/her job.The private sector has probably lost around 8 million jobs since Obama got started and that´s going to get even worse when Obamacare kicks in.

So Obama decreases the tax base under Obamacare while touting all the nice giveaways the program offers. I mean a normal person would be encouraging job creation to pay for such a monstrous new program but ohh-no,not Obama.

It all comes down to Obama´s Marxist viewpoint that a healthy economy benefits the wrong people,in this case private sector republicans.
While Obama spend reckless billions to recycle the same money for unions to donate to dems,he´s stealing money from the private sector so they won´t have money to donate.

Even still,conservatives have tons of money to donate,the problem is a lack of candidates people believe in.How many reliable conservatives can you name off the top of your head?

As March 1st approaches, Obama will be speaking everyday about how "It´s the GOP´s fault if orphans, the handicap and pregnant women will die because of sequestion". And, how wild dogs will roam the streets, horses will be turned in ground chuck and why serial killers have to released. It is going to be a depressing period, a period that hopefully the Repubs can handle with calm, sober responses and strong knees. If the GOP caves over sequestration, Obama will have created his one party system well before 2014. Because any future GOP attempts for even modest fiscal sanity will be brushed aside by Obama and Dems. It will be spend, tax, regulate & waste 24/7 for the next 46 months.

I´m waiting for the PSAs a 5 year old pouring milk on cold cereal for the 3 year old sister with spilled milk running down the table. "Budget cuts have impacted child care for working mothers leaving children to survive alone."

Obama is in his glory doing his best Chicken Little impression. He is being aided, abetted and cheered on by his lapdog media. Notwithstanding their agreement with everything he says, they also love a possible crisis to foster. It is unsettling how much they enjoy misery. Most of all though, the President would rather vilify the Republicans than try and have a dialog with them. He is not interested in discussing any ideas other than his. He is vested in the destruction of the opposition. He is waging war. The Republicans are playing tiddlywinks.

I can understand why everyone is angry at how huge the government has gotten and the waste and abuse going on but I can´t understand a statement like "people have little sympathy for a government worker losing his/her job".

Do the people on LDOT truly not understand that no matter who signs your paycheck it´s still a job that a family is relying on? Do the people on LDOT think that the average worker created this mess by simply applying for a job. Are they parasites for wanting a paycheck?

I would think that empathy for anyone losing a job is a healthy emotion and that separating the smarmy politicians of both parties and union leadership who created the mess from the average joe government worker is appropriate.

Yes there is sympathy for any worker losing their job, but do they have to get all the raises, step raises and increased perks during this time when so many are unemployed. The government is to big; it takes to much money that should be circulating more quickly into the economy by the private sector. The government must be made smaller through attrition and employees must have their salaries frozen until things get under control.

Here´s a sure-fire way to convince even the dimmest bulb when trying to prove that the government has no desire or plan to manage the hard earned money we send them. The beauty of this response in its brevity:

United State Post Office.
Then just move on to the next ´denier´.

Bari has hired 101 new Federal workers every day of his 4 +++ years and counting reign. While in those 4 years, millions of others are losing their jobs.

I have a friend who works for the National Givernment, they sent him a form letter telling him that every pay period in the future, his pay would be reduced by so much. Taking the fear to the workers and shoving it in their faces. The Big Lie drones on.

As of right now, federal workers are not loosing their jobs. They are being furloughed. This means they will have as many as 22 days and some as few as 8 days off a year from work without pay. The federal workers have had 2 years to plan for this and had each one saved the equivalent of one day´s pay a week they´d have more than money to tide them over or a nice nest egg in addition to their retirements if sequestration did not happen at all.

Isn´t it ironic, though, that local, state and the federal governments keep demanding that we take financial hits through the implementation of higher taxes and higher fees, but these same governments are unwilling to do with a penny less.

FTA: "As furloughs loom, unions try to soften sequester blow for federal workers" in the Washington Post (search LCOM for the link)

"No one will be sent home without pay Friday. The soonest furloughs would start is April 1. Employees must be given a notice at least 30 days in advance, and they have seven days to contest it. Most agencies plan to spread out unpaid days to minimize the effect on services and workers.

Furloughs will mean forfeited vacation and sick time, but how much time depends on the number of forced days off. It is unclear whether hardship cases will be considered. As Bastani told Labor Department employees, federal workers should be careful about three-day holiday weekends. Adding a fourth as a furlough day means they will not get holiday pay. Short-term unemployment benefits are an option, he said, but not in Virginia. Contractors working on ongoing projects will not be furloughed."

Ah -- the ideaa of 2 cents -- brings back fond memories of River/View in Chicago. Once a month -- or so -- the neighborhood amusement park would have a 2 cents day. Most of the rides cost 2 cents that day....

It was the time when my mother -- raising four small girls -- could afford to take US.

What great memories!! Never had "anger" at the kids who could afford to pay 15 cents on any other day. I simply enjoyed MY day....

There´s a lesson in there somewhere....

LZK

The last paragraph of the article includes one part of the problem - that some Republican Congresspeople are nervous over the size of any "cut" that would happen.

Why that crowd expects donations for their reelecton campaigns or voters to turn out is beyond me.

Don´t worry too much about the furloughs. It is more certain than gravity that any Federal worker´s docked pay will be reimbursed when the budget "crisis" is over.

It is equally certain that the only force which will effectively reduce the size of the Federal government is a bona fide fiscal collapse. And even then, given the rise of the "lo-fos", fascism is as likely as effective reform. I hate to say it, but it is true.

No.5, there are many too many people on the government payroil. Part of Obama´s plan to solve unempoyhment is to create agencies and departments and expand others. Our government was already too large when he was first elected and now is eating us up. Sympathy is well and good but we cannot have smaller government so long as we shrink from firing people. When we hear of someone losing their job we can´t help but think it´s a step in the right direction.

# 4 The Chicken Little comparison is apt.
Although, considering the Whole Foods flap over plain chicken and Obama ,
live poultry imagery will probably be deemed racist, too.
Anyway-the POTUS used to be a calming figure
for the nation , from Washington to Lincoln to FDR to George W Bush on 9/11.
This guy is always running around wringing his hands and clinging to Reggie over everything
from the flu to the budget.
While his wife does the Chicken Dance on tv.

#5. I save my sympathy for those who actually have worked for a living. Featherbedders can go to blazes and the federal government has a huge percentage of featherbedders. Fact. Each year about three percent of the workers in the for profit sector are fired for performance related issues. Fact. In the federal government less than 1% get fired and they are almost all lowly blue collar workers. Indeed, it is far more likely a white collar federal worker dies from natural causes than gets fired for incompetence. Instead of firing toxic employees the feds tend to give them a fancier title and a no work job, then hire another person to do the work they were supposed to do. This, in turn, tends to reduce the incentive of everyone else in the agency to turn in an honest day´s work.

Just watching Wise King Barky shriek and howl and stamp his feet and tear his litte dress....

It would be hilarious if it weren´t so pathetic.

Poor, poor, set-upon Barky.

Call me hard-hearted Hanna...I don´t have a lot of sympathy for Federal workers possibly losing their jobs. Not at all. Yes, the government is ten times too big, too powerful and too intrusive. Most people who have chosen to work for the government have been given a privilege none of us in the private sector have...nearly lifetime security (no matter how incompetent or lazy they are), better pay and benefits (paid from my paycheck), and most of the jobs are not even truly necessary. But what bothers me most is that to get a job in government is often about who you know and/or how to play the system. No, let them deal with the real world as the rest of us have. If they don´t feel the pain of the economy, they won´t care what happens to the rest of us. They will just vote for bigger government anyway. I don´t want to pay their salaries if they are working against my best interests.

Zero would not have to worry about those two cents if he and Sasquatch cut out their lavish, unnecessary vacations and the government departments reviewed their bloated so called budgets and cut out waste.

So take it all, everything the rich have, every dime. Take it from all the movie stars, sports stars, every business big and small. Take everything and give it to the govt. That buys one year and that is all. Then what? You can only do this once because now the wealth, the rich, the golden geese of businesses are gone. We will all be equal. Equally poor except for the uber elite and that is just exactly how every communist, Marxist country has been. Is this what we want?

Indeed, Mr. Phillips, this is a moment of truth for the House Pubs. Do they have a spine or not? Instead of their leadership joining in the Chicken Little chorus, they should be selling the sequestration as an important baby step in restoring the economy. Own it. Stand up straight and the public might even listen. Sequestration at this point is a good thing, not a bad thing. Let it happen and then hit the Emperor hard on how he chooses to deal with it. The continuing resolution runs out next month. That´s the real test. But if you´re weak-kneed in this small thing, how can you be strong when it counts?

Just wait, he´ll end up bragging about how HE cut spending.

I can understand the frustration against government workers but the issue is that this could affect national security as well. What a lot are not understanding is that this is going to affect all government agencies, groups, even those maintaining the equipment necessary to find and stop the terrorists crossing the borders (such as the camera systems on the border, the radio infrastructure that the Border Patrol or other groups use to communicate, etc.). Some of these groups have already seen their paycheck cut a significant amount due to recent government decisions (removal of hazard pay for workers that had it for years through a reversal policy). Some groups haven´t had any new hiring for 2+ years but are down below 50% staffing levels due to attrition (death, retirement, firing) and now furlough hits and the mission to repair and maintain these systems will be delayed--which could allow terrorists over the border.
It is one thing to cut the projects, wasteful spending, but this untargeted cut of working days for critical infrastructure groups could be ultimately devastating for our nation´s security.
In all reality, even though I took a 10k paycut a year to move from private sector to government (for the exact same job between the two), I would be willing even to be furloughed extra days (and yes, it would be a major financial hardship), if it would keep these infrastructure technicians working and protect our national security.
Really, the Republicans need to up their game and start calling out all these departments who have decided to mess with the livelihood of the employed, instead of cutting the waste and corruption. These department heads (and Obama´s administration) should be charged with treason from my perspective, the moment the first critical infrastructure technician is furloughed.

#5, working for the government is a conscious choice. Far too many choose that path because the work is undemanding, the pay well above market rate, job security is never a worry despite incompetence and malfeasance, and workers seeking a disproportionately lavish retirement package. Worst of all, they become a voting bloc detached from the realities of life and pledge their eternal support to statists who will serve their interests above those of the private sector and/or the nation.

#5 I´m mil but work with many, many, many federal government civilian employees. 95% of them are worthless bureaucrats interested in nothing but their next paycheck and their next raise. We have way too many paper clip and staple inspectors. We have a bloated bureaucracy I have spent a lifetime fighting against. If we lost 90% of federal civil "servants" that would be a good start. And wouldn´t make life better for the rest of us immediately, and for them, too, in the long run?

My previous post should end with, "And wouldn´t IT make life..."

Fat fingered typo...

This man my parent knew went to wonk for the staste government. He wasthere for afew weeks and got all the work done assignedto him for the week within a couple of days. the co-workers met with him and explained he is rockng the boat. "Jim", they said, "you´ll just have to get used to working 46% of the time..."

No idea.