Uncle Sam, again, mounts hamster wheel

Suppose part of your federal job description required you to come up with a year-long travel plan. Many of the people involved don’t want to go anywhere — especially with you. Everybody knows they can’t really afford the trip and that financing it means borrowing lots and lots of money, some of it from people who hate your (our) guts.

Oh, and did I mention that many of the 535 people who must clear your plan don’t want to go anywhere, want to go in a totally different direction and dislike-to-loath the tour guide and the horse he rode in on?

By now you’ve guessed that were talking about the budget of the U.S. for the upcoming fiscal year. It’s bigger than a dozen big city telephone books. It is so complicated no one person (outside of a padded cell) knows everything that’s in it. It is full of vital (to somebody) programs. It (as always) will provide funds for special interests and do things that some of us, many of us, would be horrified to know. That’s the bad news.

The good news (for some) is that the much-leaked document will be presented in full today to Congress and the media. The other sure thing is that it is DOA. As in Dead On Arrival.

Presidential budgets, whether from Eisenhower or Obama, are shopping lists. Congress never approves all (in many cases any) of the proposals. But it’s a starting point.

With that in mind, we asked several dozen readers the same question:

What they hope to see in the President’s budget, what they expect to see and what they hope not to see.” We got some good answers from people who are impacted two ways: As federal workers or retirees and also as taxpayers.

Interestingly, only two people, one, a union leader, even mentioned a pay raise. The others were looking at other things, things that non-feds might miss. Here are some of their comments:

• I try not to think about it too much, in that old tried and true “If I don’t think about it, it isn’t really there” approach to handling potential bad news. — J
• As for hopes, well, those were crushed out of me once and for all round about October of 2013, when it really hit home how little control I have over my work as a federal employee, or even if I WILL work. All sparks of hope are gone, after being told, “Stay home, we don’t want you,” in that particularly nasty round of political game-playing. I mean, I’ve always known I’m basically a peasant, but just how insignificant a pawn I am (all we feds are) was really brought home in that little round of power playing. Of course, it turned out all right — I enjoyed some extra time off, and ultimately, got paid for it anyway. Hmm, now I’m thinking about it again, I kind of HOPE for another government shutdown, I could use some extra time off, even without pay. OK, but I realize what a totally vain hope that is, there is no chance we’re going to see a big shutdown again, and it isn’t going to be in the President’s budget” — Nancy C.
• My initial thought is “Show me the money!” I’d love to see a pay raise for feds that actually results in an increase in net pay. My husband and I are both federal civil servants. The 1 percent raise coupled with a nearly 3 percent increase in health insurance premiums will ultimately give us a (combined) lower net pay in 2015 than 2014. An end to sequestration would be nice.

  All selfishness aside, I’d love to see some incentives for small business owners. The so called “Affordable Care Act” really isn’t helping them. It’s not affordable for small business owners, and creates additional strain on their ability to thrive and prosper. The “care” part is a little off base too since no one seems to care that some of the insurance companies participating are not providing adequate coverage. The fine print in the policies isn’t fine at all … it reeks of scam.” — T.R.

• Geez, this a toughie because now that I’m retired I would like to see certain things in the budget that I would probably want if I was still working. I still believe that the IRS budget should be increased and that they should have money to hire. I would also like increases in the COLAs for retirees. That could be offset with decreases in federal giveaways and some defense spending. Education spending should be cut since I’ve always believed we spend a great deal of money here and there are still uneducated people out there. It doesn’t matter how much you spend if they don’t want to learn they will not. What I hope to see is less spending on Obama care and giveaways to foreign nations when they are in need. Sounds crass, but I’ve never seen another country in my life ever GIVE the US a dime when we could use it. — Tony K.
• I think that it is a huge mistake to under-fund IRS when they are tasked with the collection of the majority of the government’s revenue. That is the one thing that jumps out at me more than any other issue right now.” — Patrick

Last, but not least, is E.P., a fed from Washington state. Although a long way from D.C., she seems to have it figured out. Her thought: :

“I do not really have any comments (amazing). I have not studied or heard enough about it to have an intelligent comment. It is unlikely to pass through Congress the way he presented it, no matter what it says.”

Not bad at all for somebody who thinks they don’t know what they are talking about!

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID

By Michael O’Connell

Rock lobsters live along the coasts of New Zealand, which is thousands of miles from Athens, Georgia, which is the birthplace of the band The B-52’s, whose first single to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 was called “Rock Lobster.”

Source: Wikipedia

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