We are one day from a government shutdown. The GOP House has passed a continuing resolution that will fund the government for one more week, will continue to fund the military and includes an additional $12 billion in spending cuts. Again, this is the 2011 budget. The budget that should have been passed last year but never was for lack of political courage in Washington. So now we're dealing with "old" business. Chances are this latest attempt will fail. Chances are the government will shut down. Fine with me. I'm willing to wager that I won't even notice. Most Americans won't, except for those who are attached to the government teet.
If the government shuts down, all non-essential federal employees will be furloughed. There are approximately 800,000 workers that will be affected.
800,000 ?
Seriously?
We actually employ 800,000 people on the taxpayer payroll who are not essential for government function? Is it just me or does this number alone reflect just how wasteful we've become? 800,000 people who do jobs that are basically unnecessary. Call me reactionary, or antiquated, or whatever, but I think this may be part of the problem.
So I say how about we start with these jobs whenever someone in Washington decides to cut the budget. 800,000 nonessential jobs sounds like a lot of fat that could be trimmed. When you consider the average federal employee receives $81,259.00 a year in wages and benefits then you're talking about over $65 billion annually to pay for jobs that are "NON-ESSENTIAL"!
So cut them. Let these people work for a living. If we're paying someone to do a non-essential job then, by definition, we can afford to cut these jobs. Every penny counts at this moment, so cut them.
At the very least it would be a good start.
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