December 28, 2018

"We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall..."

"...  & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with. Hard to believe there was a Congress & President who would approve!"

Tweets Trump this morning.

And here's a related tweet I'm noticing this morning:

109 comments:

stevew said...

Do you suppose it is a coincidence that they often use that photo when tweeting and reporting an attack on Trump?

Xmas said...

I mean, Trump may be right.

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals.php?id=D000000304&cycle=2014

paminwi said...

Trump made a factual statement.
Should he have? Probably not.

Bob Boyd said...

Trump doesn't blame himself for the shut down. He blames Democrats in Congress. If you take that into account, it changes the context somewhat.

I bet everybody gets paid anyway.

Eleanor said...

Trump didn't shut down the government, and he can't reopen it. Congress has yet to send him a continuing resolution to sign, veto, or sit on. Until they do, the onus is on them to act. Eventually, the NYT and WaPo are going to have to acknowledge that even if they choose the last page of the classifieds to do it.

Fernandinande said...

Federal employees don’t go to work wearing red or blue jerseys.

The poor little dears.

iowan2 said...

Of course the govt employees are mostly Democrat. Any metric you use proves the point. But President Trump's tweet was not a threat to Democrat govt employees, it was on observation that Democrat pols are the one denying them a paycheck. As the media are forced to do, they set the narrative, then squeeze something innocuous said by President Trump into the narrative.

tim in vermont said...

And the President is treating them like poker chips at one of his failed casinos.

Of course Schumer could solve this in a minute. Shorter headline, “Why doesn’t Trump just cave already!?!”

It’s a new aspect of human behavior discovered in DJT “mercurial stubbornness."

tim in vermont said...

Eventually, the NYT and WaPo are going to have to acknowledge that

Oh ye of little faith!

Wince said...

For their part, Democrats are treating words like buffalo chips.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The majority of Government workers who are classified as "non-essential" are Democrats. Fire Depts Police Depts are generally not majority Democrat. They ARE essential. Go figure.

The majority of College Professors are Democrats. The majority of public school teachers are Democrats.

To say that people do not bring their biases to work is naive in the extreme and duplicitous in reality.

Unknown said...

Everything has a term limit. We've reached ours. How many jobs can't be done better faster, cheaper by others? Like The Institute for Justice replacing the DOJ? "But then there will be no opportunities to corrupt, at least for a while, exactly"!

tim in vermont said...

Why not put the blame for shutting down where it belongs? The deplorable scum who voted for Trump! We are the ones who wanted the wall, and you can bet if Democrats found some way to get us all into Mexico, they would happily build a wall to keep. us from getting back in.

Trump owns this fight, so does Schumer. It’s about time we elected somebody with the balls to stand up to Schumer.

gilbar said...

of the things closed during the shutdown; Shouldn't one have then Been the southern border? doesn't sound essential to me

Dave Begley said...

Do it. Maximum pressure on the Dems.

Mark Warner's smugness and manner has always bugged me. Creep.

Dave Begley said...

Good question. How many federal employees are Dems? I'm guessing about 70%.

tim in vermont said...

OK, I ended up at parties over the holiday with a few liberals. You know what argument they accept, no matter how much they hate Trump?

“The United States of America has a right to ensure that the laws duly passed by the duly elected representatives of the people are enforced.”

This is the issue that Pelosi and Schumer are forced to avoid. I think that Trump should demand e-very at the very least, or keep the govt shut down ’til doomsday.

rhhardin said...

Why do they get paid for time not worked after they come back. That's a loser.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Blogger Dave Begley said...
Good question. How many federal employees are Dems? I'm guessing about 70%

I think that you are way low on that estimate. According to https://www.fedsmith.com/2016/12/21/tallying-political-donations-from-federal-employees-and-unions/
The highest percentage of GOP donations in any government agency came from the DOD, and DOD employees still gave over twice as much money to the D's as to the R's (65% D vs 32% R). In most agencies it's 90%D to 10%R. In the State Department, it's 94%D to 5%R.
No wonder it took us so long to win the cold war.

tim in vermont said...

Why do they get paid for time not worked after they come back. That's a loser.

Well, for one thing, they get to vote for their boss.

tim in vermont said...

Schumer thinks that it’s more important not to spend a pittance on a wall than to keep the government going.

alanc709 said...

How long has it been since Congress actually put together a budget and got it on the President's desk to be signed? Not a continuing resolution, but an actual budget? Shouldn't each cabinet department have a separate, detailed budget, so we can see what they spend money on, rather than an omnibus bill designed to hide how much is wasted? Until that happens, Congress is ALWAYS the reason for a government shutdown, Dem or GOP.

Trumpit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Henry said...

How do you close down the border if it doesn't have the wall you say you need to close it down?

David Docetad said...

"This is outrageous. Federal employees don’t go to work wearing red or blue jerseys."

If we've learned anything over the last few years, we've learned that they certainly do!

Greg Hlatky said...

Did the Senate vote on the bill passed by the House?

Trumpit said...

It's very stupid to fight Schlump on his pet project, the Wall. Build the damn wall already to take the issue off the table in 2020. The Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot as usual. It may be a colossal waste of money, but build it regardless for political and other considerations.

alanc709 said...

It's not as if politicians are averse to colossal wastes of money, is it?

Unknown said...

I forgot. PATCO folks wore orange. Why a State given cell phones, Overnights, KFC and always bringing decision makers to the meeting? Right, too business like, respecting of others time. The only thing of value. 100s of examples in today's new corporations.World wide.

iowan2 said...

I checked in on MSNBC on sirius radio while driving yesterday. They were interviewing s spokeswoman for one of the Fed govt unions. She claimed that the employees were apolitical. The interviewer never asked if the unions political support was 50/50 between the two parties. The questions not asked are drowning out all the other noise.

Temujin said...

Regarding Warner's quip on 'public servants': We could cut 60%-90% of all government employees and no one would know the difference (except those being let go). To say this govt. is a Leviathan is an understatement. Pare it down to its basic requirements: (1) National defense, (2) Judicial system, and (3)...uh...there's not a 3. Used to be postal service, but we don't even need them to do that anymore. This government is a disease, with the sole purpose of eating the wealth of the nation as its food so it can continue to grow. Its only goal and purpose is to just keep growing. It serves no other function than to absorb more employees and keep growing. At the top of this pile of waste are Senators like Mark Warner who is no more a public servant than the head of a mafia family.

Harsh? Not really. I'm being kind to the Senator. At least you know the mafia means what it says and you are clear about what they do.

You could literally cut this thing in half and your life would actually get better.

Howard said...

I thought you peoples had majorities of all three branches of the Federal Government? Cucks likes to feelz impotant, even if they tooken the blue pill.

Jeff Brokaw said...

Even more telling than the percentage of government employees who are Democrats, there is the corrupt nexus of government employee unions and the union dues they collect, and in turn donate to Democrats, who advocate for ever-expanding government.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Howard said...

Temujin: Ah yes, the only thing holding you back from your success and happiness is a over bloated Federal bueauro crazies. Very manly, Nancy.

Michael said...

They locked the bathrooms at the park where I run but they installed portapotties. LOL. Government in inaction.

David said...

There comes a time when you must stand for a principle you feel is right.Border security is an important issue and a wall would solve the problem.
We live in a time of identity politics where convenient overrides what is essentially true.

dreams said...

What about this?

"Boo hoo hoo. Those poor federal employees. Their wages on average are 3% higher than everyone else, and their benefits are 47% higher. They also have lifetime job security."

https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2018/12/maybe-they-should-learn-computer-coding.html#more

Lewis Wetzel said...

In Howard's Dreamland, there are no pro-illegal-immigration Republicans.
Kind of amazing to be that ignorant and still think that your opinion has value.

Birches said...

Does anyone care about this shutdown besides the media. Oh no! Federal employees get a paid vacation around Christmas and New year's. The horror!

MikeR said...

Has anything awful happened yet because of the government shutdown? I mean, aside from some Federal employees who aren't getting paid.
I really think this is an incredible opportunity for Trump. He should call a press conference and say:
"Till now, after every government shutdown, the budget bill included back pay for the furloughed employees. I'm not going to sign any such bill; their work was not needed for these days and we're not going to pay them for it. We are saving the American taxpayer ___ billion dollars a day. The longer the shutdown lasts, the more we save.
"We are watching carefully to see what is happening as the result of the shutdown. Essential personnel are still working. As time passes, as we see that more personnel are actually essential, we'll bring them in as well, maybe even give them some back pay if they need to play catch-up. As for the rest, I think the American people is going to start wondering soon why we have them on our nation's payroll at all. The American people is gaining very useful information here.
"If someone is doing nothing important, why are we hiring him or her to do it, paying him a huge salary and benefits? If you are worried about unemployment - I'm sure we can get someone to do that cheaper!"
Progressives could end up looking at this shutdown as a disastrous turning point, where America got wise.

dreams said...

These fed workers are getting a paid vacation because they will still get paid for the time they didn't work.

Gahrie said...

Federal employees don’t go to work wearing red or blue jerseys.

Lois Lerner did. Comey and his crew did. Most of the people at the EPA do. Political donations by federal employees vastly favors the left.

Bob Boyd said...

The Democrats didn't have a problem asking their erstwhile base, private sector workers, to permanently sacrifice their pay to help foreigners improve their lives. Why should they dodge responsibility for asking their public sector base to do the same for a few weeks?

Lewis Wetzel said...

Off the top of my head, pro illegal immigration Republican politicians are pretty high profile. Grover Norquist. The entire Bush clan. The late Senator McCain. Jeff Flake. Jon Kyl. Lindsay Graham. Marco Rubio.
Can't think of a single prominent Democrat who is actually in favor of deporting any illegal aliens. Maybe Russian illegal aliens.

MayBee said...

I don't go to work wearing a Michigan State jersey either. But I'm a Spartan, through and through.

Tommy Duncan said...

"Federal employees don’t go to work wearing red or blue jerseys."

Absolutely true! They wear khakis and sport coats.

However, they do wear their left wing partisan leanings on their sleeves. The IRS, State Department and EPA are examples.

Fritz said...

Bob Boyd said...
Trump doesn't blame himself for the shut down. He blames Democrats in Congress. If you take that into account, it changes the context somewhat.

I bet everybody gets paid anyway.


And if I were one of the 70% of Federal employees not furloughed, I'd be jealous of the 30% who'll get paid vacations over the holidays.

Browndog said...

I'm as Trumpian as anybody. I was thinking this morning that the only way this shutdown ends is Trump caving. Dems give him a pittance, and he calls it a victory.

There is no one on the right standing in Trump's corner. He won the political battle of the last shutdown because the message "dems shutdown the government over illegals" permeated through the noise.

Not seeing it this time. It may come down to something as simple as 'No Oval Office address spelling out the need for a wall/border security, no re-election for Trump.'

Howard said...

This is the Hill you die on. One can dream

AllenS said...

That thread above about the Wash Post and their comments on illegal immigrants makes me think that Trump holding out about the wall to curb the illegals is a winning issue.

Howard said...

Right AllenS. The immigration hysteria was a sure-fire Blue Wave winner in the middle term therefore ipso facto will be a Blue winner in the General. I like how you think.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Selectively closing border crossing stations would free the armed officers there to augment patrol of the flanking areas. During the closures, the customs inspectors and other staff could be furloughed.

Closing border crossing stations would, of course, devastate the economy and daily life of the cities involved. Auto parts, electronic goods, and other manufactured items constantly cross between plants in Mexico and warehouses in the US. Mexicans bring children to private schools in the US; US citizens cross to Mexico for pharmaceuticals and dental treatment. Families cross to shop or visit relatives.

Closure of crossings along the South Texas border would immediatly shut down the Toyota assembly plant in San Antonio.

Such drastic and disruptive measures should only be made in time of genuine national emergency.

Go for it.

Howard said...

Lewis Wetzel makes up shit out of rarefied gas and puts a bow on it. Some might call that gender appropriation, but I say "you go girl... Lean in for the win

FIDO said...

This is a lie.

The largest total donations were from State Department employees where Hillary Clinton previously served as Secretary of State. More than 94% of donations from employees in this agency went to Democrats. The smallest amount was from the Department of Energy, but 93.7% went to Democrats. The Department of Labor had the greatest percentage of donations going to Democrats. 98.8% of these donations were to Democratic party candidates.
Agencies likely to benefit from a Trump administration include the Department of Defense, Homeland Security and Department of Veterans Affairs. 65% of Defense contributions went to Democrats, the lowest percentage among major agencies. 75% of Homeland Security donations went to Democrats.



The majority of unions give majority to Democrat. So the WORKERS might be of any flavor. The leadership is pure Dem and with all the directed minority hires...this is not Trump's base we are talking here. Which is why Trump gets almost no love from any of his agencies: they are at the beck and call of the DNC and these days openly so.


Besides, the Republicans in the Fed will be essential personnel: military, law enforcement, ICE, etc. They are just fine.


So if the Dem operatives are suddenly treated as political players: it is because they have tried to play Trump. This is easily foreseeable payback.



FIDO said...

It's very stupid to fight Schlump on his pet project, the Wall. Build the damn wall already to take the issue off the table in 2020. The Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot as usual. It may be a colossal waste of money, but build it regardless for political and other considerations.


If you give me this and no more chain migration, I will give you an amnesty. A modest* amnesty but an amnesty.


*All illegals get put on the bottom of the pile and have a 20 year processing period.

FIDO said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
FIDO said...

I wonder what color jersey Strozk and Page wore...

Temujin said...

Howard, I'm just getting back around to you. Who said anything about my happiness? My happiness does NOT depend on the government. Nor Facebook. Or Twitter, you twit. I've got my happiness in my life- all around me. I made it my own way. And guess what- didn't need the government to make it so.

You? Do you actually think you need them to take care of you? Because they do a real swell job at that.

Leland said...

I agree with Trump that most federal civil servant employees are Democrats. They are also unionized and will get all back pay when the shutdown ends. However, a lot of contractors to the government are republican voters, and most of them won't get back pay, and depending on how the contract was bid, aren't getting paid now.

Thankfully, I wised up and left the government sector. Technically, I've been on vacation since the shutdown began and will likely still be if it ends soon. But I'll get paid either way and paid very well. To my friends that still work for the government, I suggested they get out long ago. I still support the shutdown. My message to Mark Warner, "fund the wall!!"

Anonymous said...

I wonder what color jerseys the park service employees were wearing when President Obama closed the monuments during the last shutdown.

MadisonMan said...

As noted above, it seems to me that this closed govt strategy is a winning one for Trump. I note that Democrats are choosing non-citizens coming up from central America over citizens.

I'm sympathetic to the people who work for the Govt who are being screwed over here. This is one pitfall for working in the public sector. Shall I tell the story of furloughs that Doyle implemented in WI to balance the budget?

David-2 said...

Government employees are well paid, have a guaranteed job FOR LIFE with an organization that will NEVER GO BANKRUPT, and at the end of it get to retire with excellent pensions and health care that no non-government employee gets. And to top it off they're in an organization that measures only INPUT and never RESULTS.

And, if every few years, they have to take 5-20 days off of work as extra vacation and the sole difficulty is that they won't get their pay on the pay date but a few weeks later ... that's part of the great deal they get.

If they don't like it they can abandon their guaranteed JOB FOR LIFE with its great pension and go to work in the private sector where.

And by the way, since it is a guaranteed JOB FOR LIFE and they're also guaranteed to get their "back pay" for their extra time off ... why won't banks or payday lenders give them a small loan to cover the gap? They've got great collateral: their guaranteed JOB FOR LIFE. Actually, I expect they CAN get that if they need it.

And also by the way ... why doesn't their public sector union have a "shutdown" fund like private sector unions have strike funds? Isn't that a fundamental purpose of a union? (Especially, since, unlike a strike fund, the shutdown fund can be reimbursed by the members once they get their pay a few weeks later!) Couldn't they manage to save a little bit of their enforced union dues out of their massive political contribution funds in order to help their members every couple of years? (Answer: no, because helping their members avoid the pain of shutdown would interfere with their narrative!)

The employees can go hang. They've got all the benefits, and all the leverage, that they could possibly want or need. If they can't figure out how to use it: then they're just too stupid.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

At root, the "immigration problem" and "federal budget problem" have the same cause - spending on entitlement programs such as medicare, disability, and other social assistance.

Interest on federal borrowing is next behind entitlement programs as share of total federal spending.

Dollars not spent during a "Government Shutdown" - temporary furlough of a few federal employees - is invisibly small next to entitlement and interest payments which continue during the "Shutdown."

Social entitlement programs are a major drive of illegal immigration.

Legislators treat each election as an advance auction of stolen goods - promising and delivering "free" stuff to be paid for with money stolen from the voters and their progeny.

There is no guaranteed solution to the root problem, but some that come to mind are:

..Property ownership requirement for voting. Only folks with some skin in the game should be allowed to play.

..Vote Libertarian. Republicans and Democrats both have adequately demonstrated inability to limit federal spending. Libertarian are the only party which makes a credible, if unproven, claim to do that.

Chuck said...

Trump isn't even asking for "the money to finish the wall."

There's no defined plan for a wall. We have no idea how much it would cost to even "start" a wall, much less finish a wall. We don't know how Trump defines a "wall" in his own warped mind. Is it a coast-to-coast solid barrier? That won't cost $5 billion. It will cost 5 or 10 times that amount, or more. Trump hasn't offered that plan, or that budget proposal, and he hasn't explained his absolute violation of his outlandish campaign promise that Mexico would pay for the wall.

Narayanan said...

How does this play out?
Think of $5B as the pea.
Democrats have the shells.
Trump said we're suckers no longer.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Exactly BDQ - non-essential gobbermint employees probably vote D.

Rick.T. said...

Howard said...

"I thought you peoples had majorities of all three branches of the Federal Government? Cucks likes to feelz impotant, even if they tooken the blue pill."

Apparently Howard cannot tell the difference between 51 and 60. Math is hard!

Howard said...

Temujin: born on third base and brags about hitting a triple. None of us built this country, we were lucky to be handed the keys. In any event, thank you for your service.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Democrat party members are going to lose. We're going to get a new beautiful wall on the border, and you know who's going to pay for it?

jeremyabrams said...

Have DOJ increase its arrests and prosecutions of employers in for hiring illegal immigrants, and require any company doing business with the federal government to use everify for all its hiring and submit to a related federal audit.

Quietly tell Chuck and Nancy you'll lay off in exchange for wall funding. Keep fingers crossed during that meeting.

n.n said...

"federal budget problem" have the same cause - spending on entitlement programs such as medicare

Federal and State, including Medicare and Medicaid (e.g. Obamacare) entitlements. The question, then, is if the cause is price or cost. The insurance companies are already regulated (a la single-payer). There is evidence that the cause is the former, then Obamacare, single-payer, etc., serve to obfuscate, redistribute, and ration medical services. Excessive immigration, including illegal immigration, serve to exacerbate the disparity, and political congruence shifts responsibility based on diversity classes.

Howard said...

You dildos don't have the conviction to use the nuclear option is not my problem. What don't you understand about the word "majorities"

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Remember during the first presidential debate of 2008 when senator Obama declared that he would help end the recession by hiring 600,000 more federal employees? He was telling America that he was a typical Democrat party member, politically corrupt and economically illiterate, but we got him anyway, and we got that half million more Democrat party members on the public teat. Now is the chance to get them off it.

Big Mike said...

I lived in or around Washington, DC, from 1969 until 2016, as usual, Warner is wrong. Nearly all federal employees who do not work for the DoD (and who are not Schedule C appointees in a Republican administration) are hard core Democrats.

JAORE said...

Federal employees don’t go to work wearing red or blue jerseys.

Of course not. That's what the secret handshake is for.

Unknown said...

Howard sez that there is no problem in America that he and his Democrat cronies cannot make worse by trying to implement socialism, corruption, and more theft of taxpayer money to hand to Democrats.

Qwinn said...

"It will cost 5 or ten times that"

Which would still be a smaller cost overrun than the typical Dem "high speed train to nowhere", and it would still be a rounding error in the federal budget.

JAORE said...

spokeswoman for one of the Fed govt unions. She claimed that the employees were apolitical.

In exactly the same way so many charitable/political groups are non-partisan.

Howard said...

The Unknown Cuck phantasy playhouse. What it like to be a lifer when you make a mental prison?

Dronald will rescue you some day soon

Caligula said...

"All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills."


-- U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 7, clause 1

" the President is treating them like poker chips at one of his failed casinos."
The President is treating these "poor" federal employees like poker chips?? And here I'd always thought it was the House of Representatives that held the Power of the Purse. No, wait, umm, here it is:


"All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills."

-- U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 7, clause 1

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The great thing about a government shut down is that it reveals just how many "UN necessary and NON essential" positions there are. People getting paid to do things that are not essential or often even needed. We don't miss them and realize the waste.

Just jobs that have been created that are redundant, obsolete and could very easily be consolidated into smaller more efficient departments.

Because these jobs, positions, departments have been created, bloated and staffed doesn't mean that we can never ever downsize government. Why don't we....the people begin to ask. Hey....the Emperor is really butt naked!!!!

Shut downs just illustrate all of the above.

Narayanan said...

According Democrat reading, that means

** Any Bills originated in the House of Representatives shall by amendments be used for raising Revenue by the Senate **

That was how ACA was promulgated.
Republicans did not contest this tactic.

Robert Cook said...

"Pare it down to its basic requirements: (1) National defense, (2) Judicial system, and (3)...uh...there's not a 3. Used to be postal service, but we don't even need them to do that anymore."

We don't? If the USPS were shut down, who would deliver daily mail...the cards, letters, bills, and other non-parcel deliveries that FED EX and UPS do not deliver, (or, if they were to begin delivering such mail, would charge much more than 50 cents for a standard envelope delivery)?

You're shutting your eyes to so many other necessities performed by government if these three are all you can come up with. The least important of the three you mention is, of course, "National Defense." How often in our history has our military actually been called up for true national defense? Once? Twice?

Unknown said...

Of course Robert Cook wants the US to not be defended.... after all, there are absolutely no countries in the world that would not want to conquer the richest nation ever to exist.

Without an army, navy, Air Force, marines and coast guard, even North Korea could load a few frieghters up with some of their millions of soldiers, sail into San Francisco harbor, and just drop them off.

Robert Cook would absolutely love what happened next! The rapes, the murders, the theft.... it would be every leftist Democrat's dream come true! They love love love it, since it always happens whenever leftists get full power anywhere.

And since the left is trying to do another Cultural Revolution right now in the US of A, I'm sure Robert and his cronies cannot wait to add the genocide that Mao had. Hey, there's 53 million Deplorables to kill off, maybe you can beat Mao's murder record!

--Vance

MadisonMan said...

@Robt Cook, it's usps.com, not usps.gov, for a reason.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

@ Cook

I agree that there are more essential services than just those few listed..... such as the USPS.

HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that there aren't NON essential positions WITHIN those many many departments that cannot be furloughed, downsized, consolidated or completely eliminated.

The Department or Service might be considered essential, but not every single thing within that Department actually is.

This is where a shut down is a valuable tool. We get to see the redundancy and waste and do a RESET of the system. DOWNSIZE the Government bloated bureaucracy.

Matt Sablan said...

Why wouldn't Trump treat a group openly calling themselves #Resistance as people who may not have his best interest at heart? Government employees especially high level ones chose to become political by constantly undermining Trump. The non political ones should blame them not him.

wholelottasplainin said...

dreams said...
These fed workers are getting a paid vacation because they will still get paid for the time they didn't work
*************************

I suspect millions of them spend their entire lives getting paid for for not working.

wholelottasplainin said...

JAORE said...
Federal employees don’t go to work wearing red or blue jerseys.

Of course not. That's what the secret handshake is for.

********************

Actually, as SEIU members they wear purple T-shirts, historically the identifying garb of rock-ribbed Republicans.

/sarc

Rusty said...

Howard said...
"Temujin: born on third base and brags about hitting a triple. None of us built this country, we were lucky to be handed the keys. In any event, thank you for your service.

Howaqrd; Born into his phony bologna public sector job. Better people than you are building this country every day. eat your heart out.

Kevin said...

Federal employees don’t go to work wearing red or blue jerseys

Didn’t John Roberts just lose this debate?

steve said...

Warner can go fuck himself. The vast majority of Federal workers are Dems who donate overwhelmingly to the DNC. That's why every county surrounding DC is blue. The average Fed salary is $101,000. Very few of those overpaid goldbrickers, who get five weeks of paid vacation per year and benefits up the ass, are living paycheck to paycheck. Then they get to retire early on a six figure pension. And when the shutdown is over, they get full back-pay. So excuse me if I don't shed a tear for those greedy, partisan "civil servants."

walter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
walter said...

Jerseys are not needed when they are all on Team Fed...driving the ball toward their own benefit(s) basket.
When they do reach into their own pockets:

As far as political giving goes, most feds don’t. Period. But of those that do, the vast majority donate to Democratic candidates.

Just before the 2016 presidential election, The Hill reported that “Federal government employees are opening their wallets to help Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump on Nov. 8.”

It checked Federal Election Commission records and reported that of the roughly $2 million given by feds in 14 agencies, “about $1.9 million, or 95 percent, went to” Clinton, the Democrat. It said that Department of Justice political donors gave 99 percent of their money to Clinton, while at the State Department, which she once headed, only 1 percent of the reported political contributions went to candidate Trump. It said that Trump got $8,756 from Justice employees, compared to $286,797 (at that date) for Clinton. Of the political contributions from Internal Revenue Service workers, 94 percent went to Clinton.

Jim at said...

Federal employees don’t go to work wearing red or blue jerseys.

The hell they don't.

Seeing Red said...

This is outrageous. Federal employees don’t go to work wearing red or blue jerseys. They’re public servants. And the President is treating them like poker chips at one of his failed casinos.


How out of touch. But he represents Virginia, a company town.

Kathryn51 said...

Walter said:

As far as political giving goes, most feds don’t. Period.

This may be true - after all, most Americans don't contribute to political campaigns. Even the Warner comment is accurate - fed employees don't wear their politics on their sleeve.

But I bet there isn't a single American family that doesn't have at least one fed employee (1st cousin, ex sister-in-law, daughter's new girlfriend, whatever). Maybe it's over a Thanksgiving turkey or family reunion BBQ ribs, with a bit of alcohol mixed in that the stories are told - the lazy co-worker; the petty cash thievery - caught, but just a hand slap on the wrist; how to rig the expense reports (don't do it too often or the auditors might see a pattern); the whistleblower that was punished, not rewarded; the employee that knew they were in trouble and claimed some sort of discrimination.

We don't need thrilling, headline screaming expose stories in the NYT or WaPo about government waste and abuse. We hear the stories all the time.

Seeing Red said...

Even the Warner comment is accurate - fed employees don't wear their politics on their sleeve.


Do they have to?

Eric said...

This is a great example of why people like Trump. Warner automatically spits out the politician's line, which is obviously inaccurate (dare I call it a lie?). Trump just says what anyone who gives this a moment's thought knows is true, but politicians never say. Our current journalist class shares the politicians' mindset, so they are blind to this.

Rick said...

Federal employees don’t go to work wearing red or blue jerseys.

Right. They don't wear read or blue jerseys, they wear blue jerseys.

His fantasy is so obviously wrong if he said that directly to me I'd ask if he knows any federal employees.

Bunkypotatohead said...

The money saved during the shutdown should be enough to fund the wall.
Maybe two walls. You can't be too careful.


dreams said...

CNBC really cares about the fed workers.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/28/what-federal-workers-can-do-to-generate-some-cash-amid-the-shutdown.html?__source=facebook%7Cmain

RigelDog said...

"Why do they get paid for time not worked after they come back. That's a loser."

I don't know if they are all going to be paid, if they didn't work (i.e., they are on furlough). I know that the people who are required to work expect to be eventually compensated. That said, even with savings and cutting one's household budget to the bare bones, how many months can most people go without a paycheck? With no unemployment money coming in?

Rick said...

I don't know if they are all going to be paid, if they didn't work (i.e., they are on furlough).

In all prior shutdowns employees were paid even if they didn't work.

bagoh20 said...

"It's not as if politicians are averse to colossal wastes of money, is it?"

I believe the wall would be one of the few government expenditures that would actually save money, although they say that about almost everything they spend on, but the wall will pay for itself until the Dems figure out a way to make it not, which they always do.

bagoh20 said...

The pols and the media are acting like people getting an extra paid vacation over the holiday season is a bad thing for the poor lucky bastards. I know if I offered my employees a few weeks off to be paid later every single one of them would thank me and say "the longer the better".

Now stop this bullshit narrative and call it what it is: "Paid Time Off". We are just paying them for doing nothing like we usually do.

Gretchen said...

Most federal workers are Democrats. I have zero pity. They will get time off and back pay when the government starts back up. Big deal. Government workers are paid better than most taxpayers, if they neglected to put aside money, oh well.

Lost My Cookies said...

O worked as a contractor for the DOJ, even the Republicans were Democrats

Tom Grey said...

I hope those gov't workers who don't work don't get money, tho I fear they will.

Congress spends the money, not Trump (or the Pres) -- Congress hasn't agreed to a budget.
Too bad the Reps didn't agree to a much lower budget earlier, including some money for the Wall.

Mark Warner is wrong - most Fed workers do wear their Blue jersey, it's just that it's only virtual. Still as "real" as any belief.