No worries, I pulled my already mandated and tracked productivity report, my already mandated and tracked quality report, my already mandated and tracked weekly training report, my already mandated and tracked call report, my already mandated and tracked task log, which was all ready previously mandated and tracked by my supervisor, who I meet with on a mandatory basis every month for monthly performance checks, every 6 months for semi annual performance checks and annually for performance checks, which have always been mandatory.

Nice action

It would be a start, only 1700 billion to go.

No one can deny the government employment is too gig and needs trim. The only ones that do are those who are afraid of their job.

I get it and have empathy for them. But you know what? Those of us in the private sector face that every day.

I'll provide my own breakfast thank you.

Did you take an oath to the U.S. Constitution when you took your current or any private sector job? I didn't but I took one for this job.

I use to say the pledge of allegiance every day, does that count?

Well, it is indeed a start. And IF "they" stay the course and go beyond trimming employee bloat and get after non-essential real estate, equipment, subsidies, and a whole lot of other redundancies that certainly equal another 100 billion, and IF "they" don't increase spend, we would be out of debt in less than 8 years.

I don't know, does it?. Did you ever have to give it before taking your job..??

Any of you jacwagons ever served your country or do you just arm chair quarterback it like everything else

I retired before the Constitution was written so no, the good news is I'm still collecting SS because it doesn't matter how old you are.

I agree there is a TON of fat in the Federal government. Tons! I agree that it needs to get cut but my gut is telling me that at least some of the cuts are being made in the wrong places. I believe that when all of the "probationary" employees were fired it was because they thought "probation" meant disciplinary problems, AKA "Screw Ups". It turns out that these were the newly hired "kids" that were the ones that went out in the field and got things done while middle management was stuck in the office filling out TPS reports or some other required nonsense. Ok, let the beatings begin..............

This is spot on.

I only speak to land management agencies and field-going positions, because that’s where I have personal experience. I was on a probationary period for the first year of my first “permanent” job. They could have canned me for any reason. After that, I was protected by the union.

They’ve cut off their own legs and crippled their ability to hit annual targets by removing lots of field-going personnel. I’m visiting the Tetons in June and preparing for overflowing trash cans and nothing but chaos.

One thought I’ve had: Cut out the union and you add a level of accountability that inspires a lot more productivity.

The Union "protected" an employee for almost 2 years after countless unsatisfactory performance reviews along with blowing a .12 BAC at 10 am, 2 hours after showing up for work. He was wrecked when he got there, yet I had to waste 2 years of time and effort to get rid of him. Like I said, LOTS of fat to trim but I wish they had just put each agency under a microscope for a short period of time and found efficiencies that way.

Should they get rid of the SSA?

Nah, that will never happen. Everybody takes it. Just like Medicare.

No, they should inactivate the many old numbers. While I'm sure that there are people collecting by fraud my understanding the bigger threat is the other Gov. agencies use those numbers, but time will tell. The country is at a tipping point, if something drastic is not done now nobody is going to have a job, or we can keep kicking the can down the road.

Don't worry about the trip all the campgrounds and national parks are primarily staffed by contractors, the actual government employees just over see the contractors and tell you not too touch anything on your plublic land.

Does that guarantee a person a job or life?

You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, Rob.

If they want to trim the number of employees the probationary are the easiest to start with since they don't have the same rights as the rest. Agreed, they are sometimes the ones doing lots of the work, but if they are gone the others will have to focus on jobs that have a real need rather than overseeing and pencil pushing. I worked in the government for almost 30 years before I retired and know there are lots of places to cut.