Dividend Check

[SwampCat]

A website on FERS says it was underfunded by $600 billion as if 2023 . I don’t know where it stands now ?

It seems like we can avoid the underfunded pension (California has a big issue with this) by changing it now for new hires under age 25 ?

I dont doubt it. I know the old CSRS system has to be underfunded since nobody new came into the system after 1983. Cant hardly be anyone paying in now but a lot paying out. SS about to play out, FERS under funded and reducing the federal workforce will only make that worse. Govt pretty good at writing checks they cant cover.

They have known for years SS is under funded - yet no politician wants to sign on to that - and the longer they wait to do something, the more it is going to hurt

 

[Westwind]

The problem with public pensions is that the politicians see a big pot of money sitting there that the employees had taken out of their wages and “borrow” from it. Then it never gets paid back. Then the pension fund is “underfunded” and somehow it ends up being the employees fault. (The employees whose checks it came out of.). We have lived this bad dream here in Illinois.

They “solved” it by increasing retirement age and cutting benefits for new employees. Now they are trying to go back to the old system because no one wants to be a public employee, put up with all the nonsense for a reduced pension at a much higher age. The quality of who is willing to work for the state went down and you have to hire people you wouldn't have hired before. And they figured out that 60 year old state troopers are a bad idea most of the time, lol

 

[Jerry-B-WI]

The left bitterness seethes through your post. The J6 thing was a joke, total setup, those people were persecuted like killers...sure a few were out of hand and did criminal acts.
Do you judge the Portland/Seattle/Minneapolis/Baltimore, etc. rioters as harshly as you do the J6 folks?


Let it go.

Yes I do. If they committed violent crimes prosecute them. I doubt if any of them would be pardoned though, they weren't of the proper political party.

Read my whole post. Both parties need to stop poking each other in the eye for political reasons. I know all administrations do it and they all tell us it's the right thing to do. But I think we're smart enough to see through the lies. Right?

 

[Westwind]

If someone beat an officer bloody with a flag pole at 101 Main Street in Anytown, should he go to prison?

If someone held a stun gun to an already down officers neck and shocked him until he had a stroke at 101 Main Street in Anytown, should he go to prison?

Does it matter that people were saying things like “Kill him (the cop) with his own gun” while they were holding him down and shocking him with the stun gun?

If someone sprayed bear spray in the eyes of a cop to keep him from doing his job at 101 Main Street in Anytown, should he go to prison?


If someone did these kind of acts on your front lawn while trying to break into your house or shed or business, are you eventually going to point a gun at him? Is it possible you might fire a shot at them? (I’m sorry I had to post that. It sucks.)

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to answer yes to all four. I would sure hope I wouldn’t answer yes to the last one if it was me. Pretty sure I wouldn't. But it’s a point that could be debated.

And I think reasonable people could disagree.

 

[Westwind]

Do you judge the Portland/Seattle/Minneapolis/Baltimore, etc. rioters as harshly as you do the J6 folks?

I personally do. Every person who commits riotous crimes, crimes that occur in a mob setting should get prison.

Yet the failure to punish one crime does not mean the punishment of another is unjust.

I’m a believer in putting people in jail and prison. Mess with the bull, you get the horn.

 

[H20fwler]

I personally do. Every person who commits riotous crimes, crimes that occur in a mob setting should get prison.

Yet the failure to punish one crime does not mean the punishment of another is unjust.

I’m a believer in putting people in jail and prison. Mess with the bull, you get the horn.

Do you think Biden did an OK job?

 

[H20fwler]

Yes I do. If they committed violent crimes prosecute them. I doubt if any of them would be pardoned though, they weren't of the proper political party.

Read my whole post. Both parties need to stop poking each other in the eye for political reasons. I know all administrations do it and they all tell us it's the right thing to do. But I think we're smart enough to see through the lies. Right?

Some of us are.

 

[Westwind]

Do you think Biden did an OK job?

No.

Of course that has nothing tho do with what I posted but I’m happy to answer it.

 

[Barndog56]

Does anyone really believe that having federal employees tell Elon what they accomplished last week, or any week, will actually accomplish anything. Who's going to explain to him what their jobs are and what should they be accomplishing? Ya think he'll even understand their job descriptions?

Do you really believe that Elon Musk is going through emails from 3 million government employees himself? All the stories I saw said the emails are going to the Office Of Personnel Management, which sounds like the government version of Human Resources, and also to each employee's supervisor.

Kind of like the timesheet I have to fill out and turn in every day detailing what jobs I worked on and how much time I spent on them. Or the material allocation sheet that tells how much material I used for each job.

I've had to do something similar at every single job I've had. If anything, taxpayers should be pissed that this hasn't been standard practice for the federal government all along!

 

[bwoods11]

Why are so many government workers Democrats? Shouldn’t we see 50/50 ? The issue is the Democrats in the government are out of touch with Republicans.

I see that here in my area of Western Minnesota. My county voted 75% Trump, but the local government workers are mostly Democrat?

Same with teachers. The Minnesota DNR is mostly Democrats? What gives here, are they biased at hiring ? Is it the culture ?

 

[omicron1792]

Why are so many government workers Democrats? Shouldn’t we see 50/50 ? The issue is the Democrats in the government are out of touch with Republicans.

I see that here in my area of Western Minnesota. My county voted 75% Trump, but the local government workers are mostly Democrat?

Same with teachers. The Minnesota DNR is mostly Democrats? What gives here, are they biased at hiring ? Is it the culture ?

Path of least resistance. See academia also.

 

[Westwind]

I was looking at this the other day. When I look at this I see a lot of likely Republicans. Especially when you consider how many of these departments have law enforcement functions.

As far as people in education, maybe the last 10 years of telling public schools, public employees and union members how much they suck has something to do with it.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Do you really believe that Elon Musk is going through emails from 3 million government employees himself? All the stories I saw said the emails are going to the Office Of Personnel Management, which sounds like the government version of Human Resources, and also to each employee's supervisor.

Kind of like the timesheet I have to fill out and turn in every day detailing what jobs I worked on and how much time I spent on them. Or the material allocation sheet that tells how much material I used for each job.

I've had to do something similar at every single job I've had. If anything, taxpayers should be pissed that this hasn't been standard practice for the federal government all along!

Not to mention about the emails…so we are ok that some inept at best, corrupt at worst, organization has access to our info. But heaven forbid a group trying to find fraud and waste might have access.

 

[jsasker007]

Why are so many government workers Democrats? Shouldn’t we see 50/50 ? The issue is the Democrats in the government are out of touch with Republicans.

I see that here in my area of Western Minnesota. My county voted 75% Trump, but the local government workers are mostly Democrat?

Same with teachers. The Minnesota DNR is mostly Democrats? What gives here, are they biased at hiring ? Is it the culture ?

I think it's because democrats want to grow the government and do try to hire people who have the same agenda. jmho

 

[bwoods11]

View attachment 74371
I was looking at this the other day. When I look at this I see a lot of likely Republicans. Especially when you consider how many of these departments have law enforcement functions.

As far as people in education, maybe the last 10 years of telling public schools, public employees and union members how much they suck has something to do with it.

Could be that liberal teachers unions push it in the hiring of their staff, or the teachers lounge might have an influence?? You realize Trump won more union members in this election than any Republican in many years .

I will agree that most police & military & are Republicans. Law enforcement didn’t really care for the defunding the police narrative &/or the kneeling for George Floyd !

 

[Westwind]

Could be that liberal teachers unions push it in the hiring of their staff, or the teachers lounge might have an influence?

Schools hire kids with teaching degrees. A lot of schools are struggling to hire teachers period, I don’t know that they have much choice.

Sometimes it seems like the party is at war with everyone including themselves. As a good Republican, I was pretty pissed when after almost three decades in law enforcement a jackass Republican governor started tinkering with the pension I had earned. So even if I don’t agree with them I can understand how teachers who are sick of the loser parents and kids they are dealing with and might otherwise be inclined to support the party of law and order but also might feel like that party ran them off with all the rhetoric.

Sorry about the run on sentence and I hope that makes some sense. I guess thats one way to prove I’m not a democrat teacher, lol

 

[bwoods11]

Schools hire kids with teaching degrees. A lot of schools are struggling to hire teachers period, I don’t know that they have much choice.

Sometimes it seems like the party is at war with everyone including themselves. As a good Republican, I was pretty pissed when after almost three decades in law enforcement a jackass Republican governor started tinkering with the pension I had earned. So even if I don’t agree with them I can understand how teachers who are sick of the loser parents and kids they are dealing with and might otherwise be inclined to support the party of law and order but also might feel like that party ran them off with all the rhetoric.

Sorry about the run on sentence and I hope that makes some sense. I guess thats one way to prove I’m not a democrat teacher, lol

I was a teacher & a football coach for 7 years . Then started my own business . I was in the teaching lounge . Kinda depressing .

I respect teachers and most of them are great . There’s a few duds ! The unions are not always productive, but again, it’s not always a glamorous job !

Honestly speaking in front of kids every day, and coaching in pressure packed section championships helped me with my business. I’m glad I did that ! I miss coaching more than teaching !

 

[jsasker007]

I volunteered to coach elementary basketball for boys for about 10 years and then coached the elementary girls for about 4 years. I looked forward to it and donated my time and put my own money in the gas tank so we could play other schools and travel to get to away games/tournaments. We only practiced for a couple hours every Saturday. It was a lot of fun and we never had a team that finished the year under .500. Was offered my choice to be head coach of 3 different varsity teams but unfortunately my business hours didn't work out with the time I would have to be coaching otherwise I would have done it. Could have coached varsity football or either of the boys or girls varsity basketball teams. Sure wish the times didn't conflict.

 

[westonwhitetail]

I never knew until recently...1.9% of all workers in the US work for the federal government. That is insane. I'm all good with cutting workers, that's too big of government. I wish it would be done in a more organized manner, to keep a higher percentage of the good ones. I also wish the money saved wouldn't be used for the next big tax cut for corporations like it will be. Don't worry the average guy will get a cut too, but it will amount to about 100 bucks and a kick in the ass at the grocery store.

 

[Catscratch]

I'd guess the teaching thing boils down to a few trends. Teachers in big democratic cities will probably trend towards democratic (like the rest of the population). Teachers in rural communities will probably trend towards Republican. Teachers who are naturally people who tend to want to help others "feel" good will likely be democrats, teachers who personally trend towards facts over feelings will probably trend toward republican. With that said the vast majority of teachers I know are republican, and they keep that out of the classroom. But the right wing media usually tries to say ALL teachers are liberal democrats which is missleading. The union does push support of democratic politian's way more than republican. I think it's a funding issue. Most state's largest cost/tax burden is education. Democrats typically support that while republicans want to cut spending. Self preservation at that level.