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WaPo

Agencies set up plans to manage cuts if Congress, Obama fail to reach deficit deal

With 25 days before $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years are set to start, the White House sent word this week to civilian and defense agencies to prepare for the worst to happen.

… For months, some managers have been quietly preparing worst-case plans, having grown painfully familiar with budget uncertainty after a near-government shutdown last year and numerous stopgap budgets. …

The court system, which faces a $555 million loss next year under an 8.2 percent cut mandated for civilian agencies, is preparing to close some district courts one day a week, impose employee furloughs of up to four weeks and reduce the hours of security officers who guard courthouses. …

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission assured employees in November that no furloughs or layoffs are planned. Instead, to save money, outside contracts would be stretched out or stopped. The National Park Service has slowed some hiring for the tourist season, a strategy that advocates and former park officials said would have to continue in January.

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Agencies composed of who?
Who was involved in the process of selecting this staff?

Mimzey on December 8, 2012 at 8:56 AM

What they will never tell you is that they could run much better if they cut three times what this will force them to.

astonerii on December 8, 2012 at 8:57 AM

Hmm, maybe we should go over the cliff after all.

Doughboy on December 8, 2012 at 9:02 AM

Wapo: we’ll have to let prisoners loose! The reactors will melt down! Cave, Boehner, cave!

Wethal on December 8, 2012 at 9:03 AM

What they will never tell you is that they could run much better if they cut three times what this will force them to.

astonerii on December 8, 2012 at 8:57 AM

Bend over active military and retirees.

Did you go to AMVETs to sort out your remaining ed benefits?

hawkdriver on December 8, 2012 at 9:14 AM

,
I have finally come to a conclusion….

Wasn’t it part of ‘Financial Reform’ that if a ‘Financial Institution’ became so fiscally un-sound that it could harm the economy it would be forcibly wound down and dismantled so there would be no more “Too Big to Fail”??

Why can’t we apply this to the Government?

‘

cntrlfrk on December 8, 2012 at 9:17 AM

Wethal on December 8, 2012 at 9:03 AM

Thats the problem. They never cut what needs to be cut like the EPA or DOE ect ect.

watertown on December 8, 2012 at 9:18 AM

Bend over active military and retirees.

Did you go to AMVETs to sort out your remaining ed benefits?

hawkdriver on December 8, 2012 at 9:14 AM

Have to swallow bad tasting medicine sometimes to get to the cure. I even had to get iced to save me from fever. Certainly not an enjoyable or healthy activity. Something you would be warned never to do in any other circumstance. Once we get our fiscal house in order, votes will come along to fix what gets broken.

I was planning on going sometime during my two weeks off Christmas and New Years. Going to be painfully money free.

astonerii on December 8, 2012 at 9:21 AM

I was planning on going sometime during my two weeks off Christmas and New Years. Going to be painfully money free.

astonerii on December 8, 2012 at 9:21 AM

Good luck with it.

hawkdriver on December 8, 2012 at 9:26 AM

Big Bird hardest hit.

davidk on December 8, 2012 at 10:04 AM

Repeat after me…..

There are no cuts, there are no cuts.

A reduction in increased spending is not a spending cut.

Meat Fighter on December 8, 2012 at 10:23 AM

Big Bird hardest hit.

davidk on December 8, 2012 at 10:04 AM

Nope, the only thing cut from the Children’s Lucrative Television Workshop is the Pedo-Puppet being operated by that gay man.

hawkdriver on December 8, 2012 at 10:32 AM

The public would quickly feel the effects,

You would not want to make cuts that people would not feel, End the girls soccer team and cancel music classes so parents will react and beg you to restore the cuts!

8.2 percent cut to domestic agencies.

This is less than they have gone up since 2008. Starting with the Stimulus, a lot of these agencies were inflated by as much as 25%. A simple way to stop the spending would be to fire federal workers back to the staffing levels of 2008. And use the priorities of 2008, revised to today’s needs. There is no “right” to a government job. I would also suggest department heads use merit and productivity factors and lay off the most do nothing workers, no matter what their seniority looks like.

There is no reason in a country with not enough jobs, that anyone who is not good at their job is not exchanged for a better worker.

Fleuries on December 8, 2012 at 10:36 AM