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20k federal workers take "buyout" so far, official says

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Re: 20k federal workers take "buyout" so far, official says

#161

Post by ryandrake »

bigmattystyles wrote: post #82
veggieroll wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the adminstration's plan to execute on this is basically garden leave. They tell the "retiring" employees to stop working, but keep them on the payroll so they keep getting paid. This administration has been playing a lot of games with "budgeted" vs. "delayed" vs. "actively being worked on" (or not). So this isn't really that different than the abrupt cancellations or delays or re-org'ing of funded and legisl…

That sounds illegal

Almost any reply to a political thread in the next four years is going to be "That sounds illegal" but it's only illegal if the law gets enforced. I encourage anyone responding with "That sounds illegal" or "They can't do that" to also include in their response, "...and it will be enforced by [xxxx]." and try to come up with a realistic xxxx.

EDIT: I'm not making any judgment about whether this particular thing is legal or not--just pointing out that it doesn't matter if it's legal if nobody in power intends to enforce the law.

Re: 20k federal workers take "buyout" so far, official says

#162

Post by giarc »

kevmo314 wrote: post #4

> The buyout offer entitles federal employees to stop working more or less immediately and continue to be paid through Sept. 30. > The federal workforce's normal attrition rate is about 6% a year, meaning some of those who've taken the buyout may have been planning to leave government service anyway. Wow, talk about an amazing deal if you already happened to be planning on leaving...

I heard that on average 10,000 employees retire every month. So if you had planned to retire in Jan/Feb/Mar, you might as well take the buy out and gain a few extra months of basically "free pay". That is assuming that it actually arrives in your bank account.

Re: 20k federal workers take "buyout" so far, official says

#163

Post by spacemanspiff01 »

cogman10 wrote: post #99
bobthepanda wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, the last House was wracked with all sorts of deadlock because the Republican majority was only 5 representatives, and having 5 splinter off was incredibly easy. The current House has an even smaller majority of 2 currently, so it's now infinitely more possible for a deadlock to happen.

Exactly this. 2 are nearly guaranteed to break because we have a couple of republicans that always vote no on budget bills because they want massive cuts to everything. That means either the bill ends up completely destroying federal funding, which risks losing centrist republicans or republicans in tight district races. Or the bill ends up trying to win over a few democrats in similarly contested districts, which ri…

The counterpoint from what I have been reading is that the Dems will not be helping without concessions, particularly about oversite regarding Elon musk, and doge.

Re: 20k federal workers take "buyout" so far, official says

#164

Post by verall »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #119
scarface_74 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re-hire people for what? They don’t want a functioning government

OK. What do they want? Seriously, what do you claim they want? A fascist dictatorship? You still need a functioning government for that. (It doesn't function for the people , but it still requires a large number of competent employees.) Anarchy? Mad Max? Everybody dies, so no government employees are needed? Takeover by Canada, Mexico, China, or Russia, so it becomes their problem? Or do you just claim that they're s…

> A fascist dictatorship? You still need a functioning government for that.

Not really, just a functioning police force.

Re: 20k federal workers take "buyout" so far, official says

#165

Post by dev_daftly »

Shank wrote: post #15

I think the main issue for anyone wanting to take the offer is simply: this was never authorized by congress, so the money to pay people to September is questionable if it exists at best. Meanwhile, there's a government funding deadline on March 14, 2025. So there's a very real chance at this deal offering something closer to ~1 month of pay before it suddenly gets dropped due to budget negotiations. It would be an i…

[flagged]

Re: 20k federal workers take "buyout" so far, official says

#166

Post by jollyllama »

cyberlurker wrote: post #41
simple10 wrote: post #13

It's interesting that annual attrition rate is 6% according to the article. I hadn't considered that before. The buyouts could end up costing more than they save if the only people who take it were the ones already planning on leaving. But maybe the argument is if enough people take it before the March budget deadline, then each departments budget can be proportionately reduced in the next cycle. Does anyone know the…

Move fast and break things mentality over the boring strategy of letting a hiring freeze slowly work. It’s also psychologically challenging the people that stay to “admit” they can’t get a job in the private sector, which helps the Elon narrative. They want to make government employees feel bad. Plus these people are unlikely to ever get paid. This is all operating outside of congress. If the institutions survive at…

> It’s also psychologically challenging the people that stay to “admit” they can’t get a job in the private sector, which helps the Elon narrative. They want to make government employees feel bad.

That's probably their angle but tbh I'd think more of the tenure of someone who turned down money to keep their job than one who quit it for a one time payment.

Re: 20k federal workers take "buyout" so far, official says

#167

Post by ryandrake »

scarface_74 wrote: post #110
lacksconfidence wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that resignation was part of a larger deal. If the deal is thrown out, shouldn't the resignation be thrown out too?

And what happens when you try to come back to work? Will Musk pay you or allow you into the office? He literally has control of the federal budget for payments now. We are getting into banana republic territory now with no rule of law.

I definitely wouldn't put it past Elon Musk to offer a buyout, collect a list of names who "accept" and then fire them all as disloyal, without any buyout. It would be on-character.

Re: 20k federal workers take "buyout" so far, official says

#168

Post by _qbxi »

ryandrake wrote: post #161
bigmattystyles wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds illegal

Almost any reply to a political thread in the next four years is going to be "That sounds illegal" but it's only illegal if the law gets enforced. I encourage anyone responding with "That sounds illegal" or "They can't do that" to also include in their response, "...and it will be enforced by [xxxx]." and try to come up with a realistic xxxx. EDIT: I'm not making any judgment about whether this particular thing is le…

Illegal acts should be called out, even if our government is failing to enforce the law. Otherwise it will become easy for the acts to get ignored entirely.

Re: 20k federal workers take "buyout" so far, official says

#169

Post by ryandrake »

Jtsummers wrote: post #143
Retric wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s many examples of government shutdowns where workers received back pay even when they didn’t work those hours. So future administrations are likely to retroactively approve payments if it becomes a political issue. Honestly taking the buyout without an act of congress backing it is likely the more risky here unless you where already planning to leave which is likely why most people took it.

By law they have to be paid for the furloughed time in the case of a shutdown, since 2019. Previously, they were typically paid for that time whether they had to work through the shutdown or not but it was not guaranteed. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN12251

Who's going to enforce that law?

Re: 20k federal workers take "buyout" so far, official says

#170

Post by tombert »

scarface_74 wrote: post #160
tombert wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that after all these cuts, they're going to realize that some of these things actually are required in order for the American people not to complain too much. I just remember in Trump's first term, and this is something that has stuck with me since, was how he promised, on day one, to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act, only for a few weeks after taking office saying "Nobody knew health care could…

The only thing that saved the ACA was McCain who saved it as the last great act at the end of his life. All of the sensible, principled Republicans have died or retired. The modern Republican Party seem willing to go off the cliff with him. The tech sector is firmly in his pocket and all of the news media are owned by corporate giants who are literally bribing him to get what they want by “settling lawsuits”. I alway…

Yeah, I'll admit it's kind of wishful thinking on my end.

My wife is a Mexican immigrant. She does have a green card, and our attorney has filed the paperwork for her citizenship about four months ago. She's probably fine, but it's scary. I have to keep an ear to the ground for the news, and figure out if we need to evacuate.

Who the hell knows what is going to happen? If Trump signs some sort of order revoking all green cards, even if it gets struck down by some miracle, a lot of damage can still be done in the interim.

We have our immigration attorney's phone number on speed dial. It's depressing that I have to do that, but I'm not sure what else I can do.

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