Official Government Shutdown 2023 Thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are those fed employees that are required to work during shutdowns actually required to work (legally) or is that cultural/political? As in, do you sign something when you are hired that binds you to working without pay? This is all very frustrating and grandstanding.

They’re required to work. They can’t even take leave. If they don’t work, they’re AWOL and can be disciplined.

Right all leave is cancelled. If you get sick, you get furloughed and don’t return until shutdown ends. Now that they are guaranteed pay, I guess Feds could get “sick” and furlough themselves. I almost had to do that because of scheduled surgery.

This has to be fixed in the eventual settlement. One of the things that should give a shutdown a real bite is being able to save money for each day of shutdown while hammering the administrative state and its worker bees. Guaranteeing back pay ruins this. Biden and Schumer are pretty feeble, so the House Republicans should hold out until that legislation gifting shutdown back pay is eliminated or at least substantially reduced.

This would be an excellent way to anger an entire workforce of hundreds of thousands of people, but I guess that’s an accomplishment to Republicans?

[Anonymous]

The agreement to pay federal workers after a shutdown was very bipartisan, originally proposed by Republican Senator Portman of Ohio.

[Anonymous]

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/09/we-could-be-headed-for-a-record-breaking-government-shutdown.html

I agree with every word of this and have been saying it for months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are those fed employees that are required to work during shutdowns actually required to work (legally) or is that cultural/political? As in, do you sign something when you are hired that binds you to working without pay? This is all very frustrating and grandstanding.

They’re required to work. They can’t even take leave. If they don’t work, they’re AWOL and can be disciplined.

Right all leave is cancelled. If you get sick, you get furloughed and don’t return until shutdown ends. Now that they are guaranteed pay, I guess Feds could get “sick” and furlough themselves. I almost had to do that because of scheduled surgery.

This has to be fixed in the eventual settlement. One of the things that should give a shutdown a real bite is being able to save money for each day of shutdown while hammering the administrative state and its worker bees. Guaranteeing back pay ruins this. Biden and Schumer are pretty feeble, so the House Republicans should hold out until that legislation gifting shutdown back pay is eliminated or at least substantially reduced.

This is stupid. The whole point of legislating back pay is to ensure that the federal workforce does not become a puppet for rich Congressmen who have no cares about missing some paychecks just to make a political point. You don't want a small group, like this Freedom Caucus, to be able to hold 6M federal employees hostage and cost the federal government billions of dollars.

I actually think it should be the other way around. The default should be that the government continues working and funded at some predetermined level (either the same as the prior fiscal year, or the prior fiscal year plus some standard index) unless the Congress agrees to differnet spending levels. So, basically there is a predetermined level of funding. To change it, the parties have to actually cooperate and compromise to come to agreements on what to change it to. This way Congress has to do their job to make changes. Right now, having a handful of Congressman thrown a childish temper tantrum shuts down our federal government and that's like Congressional terrorism rather than legislatng and working. We need to stop holding the federal government hostage every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:sucks for SEC employees... all stock trades (including for spouse) have to be pre-cleared, and you can't get a margin loan. less than two weeks to decide if I want to sell something to free up cash, and no way to figure out how much/for how long...

Boohoo. If you are on the sk pay plan and are living month to month, that's on you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/09/we-could-be-headed-for-a-record-breaking-government-shutdown.html

I agree with every word of this and have been saying it for months.

I don't understand why McCarthy just doesn't trigger the vote-of-confidence and stare down Gaetz, MTG, et al. He will win the vote and rid himself of these pests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:sucks for SEC employees... all stock trades (including for spouse) have to be pre-cleared, and you can't get a margin loan. less than two weeks to decide if I want to sell something to free up cash, and no way to figure out how much/for how long...

Many mutual funds are pre-programmed to be pre-cleared so you just have to enter it in and then you are good to go.

[Anonymous]

Joe needs to go full Bartlett and shut everything down, including ATCs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/09/we-could-be-headed-for-a-record-breaking-government-shutdown.html

I agree with every word of this and have been saying it for months.

I don't understand why McCarthy just doesn't trigger the vote-of-confidence and stare down Gaetz, MTG, et al. He will win the vote and rid himself of these pests.

15 separate votes the first time. That’s why. If the Dems would just vote for him as Speaker and pass McCarthy’s compromise bill from his caucus all this would be over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/09/we-could-be-headed-for-a-record-breaking-government-shutdown.html

I agree with every word of this and have been saying it for months.

I don't understand why McCarthy just doesn't trigger the vote-of-confidence and stare down Gaetz, MTG, et al. He will win the vote and rid himself of these pests.

15 separate votes the first time. That’s why. If the Dems would just vote for him as Speaker and pass McCarthy’s compromise bill from his caucus all this would be over.

But that was then and this is now. He should have a stable of loyalists by now who can whip the votes. The rest of the GOP delegation is exhausted from being held hostage by 20 psychopaths.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:sucks for SEC employees... all stock trades (including for spouse) have to be pre-cleared, and you can't get a margin loan. less than two weeks to decide if I want to sell something to free up cash, and no way to figure out how much/for how long...

Boohoo. If you are on the sk pay plan and are living month to month, that's on you.

well aren't you nice? i mean, no, i'm not living-month-to-month if i have assets to sell, but in an extended shutdown i can't get clearance to sell assets AND won't get paid which kind of changes the calculus. it's not like i can just temporarily take my mom out of her hospice/assisted living and not pay her rent for however many months this could go on.

of course moving her might kill her, which i guess i could look at as a cost-savings solution? sorry, mom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who are tracking this, and/or who are scared, how long do you think we'll be shutdown?

About a month.

someone a few posts above is floating a quarter!

YIKES

The FC aims high.

What is wrong with them? I don't get it.

This is what happens when a party has no platform and looking for free airtime/publicity. People seem to forget the last shutdown where we were hours away from losing GPS capabilities. Let seniors and military go 3 months without pay and see what happens.

Military? WTF are MAGAS pulling this time? Didn’t military get paid during previous shutdowns?

Military appropriations took a few days into the 2013 shutdown to pass. But nothing major. Otherwise, yes. Military appropriations always go though early and easily. This clown car hasn’t even been able to get military appropriations to th floor to discuss. Forget about a vote. PS— they are also block appointing new members of the Joint Chiefs and we are down 2. And they are kinda important.

There is no ideology. Just bomb throwing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. What’s the likelihood that this is all political theater and will blow over by Oct 1? I don’t understand politics very much. I though the debt ceiling fight was going to be a bigger issue but that resolved at the last minute.

I feel like it’s always political theater but the Republicans only get crazier every cycle. I’ve been a fed for 9 years and the only shutdown I’ve experienced was literally one Friday morning.

Wait? What 9 years? Were you one during Trump? I’m confused.

Some appropriations bills had passed in 2019, so it was a partial shutdown. I’m SSA and we were funded and kept on with normal operations and on time pay. This time, no one is funded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are those fed employees that are required to work during shutdowns actually required to work (legally) or is that cultural/political? As in, do you sign something when you are hired that binds you to working without pay? This is all very frustrating and grandstanding.

Legally required. And Feds are not allowed to strike either (remember Reagan and the ATCs?). It is probably illegal and is being litigated. Not sure where that is in the pipeline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are those fed employees that are required to work during shutdowns actually required to work (legally) or is that cultural/political? As in, do you sign something when you are hired that binds you to working without pay? This is all very frustrating and grandstanding.

They’re required to work. They can’t even take leave. If they don’t work, they’re AWOL and can be disciplined.

Right all leave is cancelled. If you get sick, you get furloughed and don’t return until shutdown ends. Now that they are guaranteed pay, I guess Feds could get “sick” and furlough themselves. I almost had to do that because of scheduled surgery.

This has to be fixed in the eventual settlement. One of the things that should give a shutdown a real bite is being able to save money for each day of shutdown while hammering the administrative state and its worker bees. Guaranteeing back pay ruins this. Biden and Schumer are pretty feeble, so the House Republicans should hold out until that legislation gifting shutdown back pay is eliminated or at least substantially reduced.

That’s terrible. Biden and Schumer better not do that.

They won’t. Even Trump was pretty vocal about feds not being hurt because they will be paid.