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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

#391

Post by squigz »

ahi wrote: post #182
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…

I'm skeptical. Most of these federal jobs either marginally improve millions of lives or are completely critical for 10k Americans. The former is so spread out it will be hard to connect the dots; chronic stress of wondering why is everything sus these days. The latter mostly serves the already disenfranchised, e.g. adult daycare cuts.

> Most of these federal jobs either marginally improve millions of lives or are completely critical for 10k Americans.

Firstly, are you basing this assertion on any sort of reality, or are you just 'sus' about it?

Secondly, marginal improvements for millions of people in many different areas is nothing to scoff at - that is precisely what a government is supposed to do - and will add up to very significant improvements very quickly.

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

#392

Post by ryandrake »

mandevil wrote: post #364
ryandrake wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who's going to enforce that law?

The employees, suing in Federal court, since they have a clear and obvious loss to point to, they will have standing. Judges can either obey the law or not. If they don't obey the law, then we are much further along on the authoritarian spectrum then everyone thinks, but so far Musk has lost a lot of court cases and has several emergency injunctions against him doing anything.

Judges can write as many judgments as they want, but who's going to enforce those judgments? Only an executive branch that is interested in the rule of law is going to care about judgments.

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

#394

Post by sigzero »

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…

Well, their positions are funded (depending on how FY25 funds were allocated to the agency). The order just means they can potentially not come to work until September.

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

#395

Post by Retric »

ryandrake wrote: post #392
mandevil wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The employees, suing in Federal court, since they have a clear and obvious loss to point to, they will have standing. Judges can either obey the law or not. If they don't obey the law, then we are much further along on the authoritarian spectrum then everyone thinks, but so far Musk has lost a lot of court cases and has several emergency injunctions against him doing anything.

Judges can write as many judgments as they want, but who's going to enforce those judgments? Only an executive branch that is interested in the rule of law is going to care about judgments.

Being the head of the executive branch only provides so much actual power here.

You need to replace lower level employees as Trump is trying, and at 1% adoption mostly failing to do.

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

#396

Post by ModernMech »

encoderer wrote: post #191
spacemanspiff01 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they were serious about the offer, they would get it passed through Congress on a party line vote via reconciliation, they have the votes, there is nothing the Dems could do to stop it. The fact that they have not is telling.

All it tells me is that I agree with you and yes congress would ratify it, so doing this is pointless and only going to slow you down. Why would it make sense for them to do this? Democrats would still howl in disapproval no matter what they did.

> so doing this is pointless and only going to slow you down.

That's a feature. Going slow and giving Democrats a chance to howl is called "democracy". It's our system. Unilaterally moving fast and breaking things without even allowing a chance for debate or input from the minority party is a different system, called "autocracy".

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

#398

Post by root_axis »

dehugger wrote: post #310
tencentshill wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What good is a lawsuit if He decides to ignore it and not pay? One side of that battle is ultimately backed up by the military.

Military members are government employees. I imagine they would be extremely circumspect of being deployed against other government employees who were cheated by a bad-faith deal.

> I imagine they would be extremely circumspect of being deployed against other government employees who were cheated by a bad-faith deal

Why would they be?

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

#400

Post by araes »

weinzierl wrote: post #219
reaperducer wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't Twitter workers still trying to get their severances and they took the offer when Twitter actually had the money to pay. Considering that SpaceX is so far behind on its bills that dozens and dozens of companies in Texas have had to place liens against the company, my guess is that neither the Twitter people, nor the SpaceX people, nor the federal buyout people will ever see a dime. For some reason, links to st…

I am complete outsider and know nothing about this so I am sorry to ask but in my view this is a shocking proposition. Can anyone corroborate this? EDIT: Specifically the claim that "SpaceX is so far behind on its bills that dozens and dozens of companies in Texas have had to place liens against the company"

Hadn't heard of it either until up-thread so I looked. The two primary articles that were found on a search were from Reuters and the San Antonio Express News. Most other seem to just be referencing the Reuters article and using the same quotes. Tend to think the opinion up-thread is probably close, and SpaceX is basically not paying because they can, because people want the work, and because they can make more holding the money and delaying as long as possible, while eating relatively small fees.

Reuters, May 2024: "Quick to Build, Slow to Pay" https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/musks-spacex-is-qui...

SAEN, Feb, 2025: "Contractors say they're owed more than $5.5 million" https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/spacex-unpaid-c...

There's also a "somewhat" unique one from MySanAntonio that goes over the general range of lawsuits that are being filed against Musk in Texas over a range of issues. It happens to include the Reuters article lawsuits and liens as one of the many listed.

MySanAntonio, Sept, 2024: "lawsuits in Texas" https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/austin/article/elon-musk-t...

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