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Re: Trump signed orders making it easier to fire federal workers. 

By: xcslewis in ALEA | Recommend this post (3)
Sat, 26 May 18 7:44 PM | 62 view(s)
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Msg. 25351 of 54959
(This msg. is a reply to 25342 by Cactus Flower)

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Like POTUS I am opposed to endless wars. He is striving to usher in an unprecedented era of worldwide peace and prosperity. He inherited a mess that will take time and military strength to resolve. He is making incredible progress in a very short time. Over the long term the portion of our federal budget devoted to military spending may be reduced.

Endless wars have created a huge number of veterans who have been promised benefits. Those promises must be kept. Reforming the VA to reflect market forces is critical to keeping those promises and reducing costs.

The securing of our borders must be achieved. If that objective is achieved coupled with rhe era of peace may result in lower homeland security expenditures.

It seems to me the post office is a relic of the past and is largely unnecessary. It seems it should be privatized.

Many other functions performed by the federal government ought to take at the state or local level, or find ways to incorporate market forces into the administration of those functions.

When Trump is done I anticipate he will be the most consequential president in our lifetime and have accomplished a lot of good for America and the world.

The next few months should be very interesting.


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The above is a reply to the following message:
Re: Trump signed orders making it easier to fire federal workers.
By: Cactus Flower
in ALEA
Sat, 26 May 18 3:07 PM
Msg. 25342 of 54959

Hi csl,

You may be right but can you provide non-partisan sources for your data?

I have found a figure for employees, which is 2.8m, of whom 738k are in the military, 373k in veterans affairs and 192k in homeland security - so security and defence-related people account for nearly half of the total. I think you usually argue for increasing these outlays, so it would be disingenuous if you were criticising them.

Of the remaining half (1.4m), around 600k work for the post office. Otherwise, only Justice (with 117k) exceeds 100k personnel.

Are you concerned that in a country of 326m, less than 1/2% administer the non-security portion of the country, in matters which provide common goods rather than market-responsive activities? Have you got a particular animus towards the post office, which provides a large proportion of those jobs?

Let me put it another way. There are about as many non-defence related employees in the federal government as there are (non-federal) firefighters in the US. But the federal government has to manage the postal system, treasury, justice, labour, agriculture, health and human services, interior, commerce and transportation with its workforce.

You seem to be upset that some sorts of activities aren't susceptible to market forces. I know Trump thinks American justice and diplomacy ought to be purchasable, like a can of coke, but it is new coming from you.


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