Spot on Peter! I’d add another idea. The Government, some of them elected, but many appointed, have been so irresponsible with money that their excessive spending and borrowing is reducing our earnings by much more than the “ advertised inflation rate” for a small moment I thought without reelection worries Trump would actually care about deficit spending and try to reduce our debts. Nope he’s another big government lover like almost all the rest in government. 7 days a week 365 is what we do to combat these morons in charge, but that just forces us to stay in the highest tax bracket and depletes our earnings even more! That which can’t go on forever won’t!
We need a return to Calvin Coolidge's style of presidential leadership. Axing 271,000 federal employees is a good start, but the budget lines are so bloated with entitlement I'm not sure it's possible. So another good start is to attack the fraud and profiteers off "the system" and lay it bare to the bone.
Excellent post, Peter! 👍 Hopefully, the 271,000 reduction in government employment is just a start! Slice another 500,000 and we could make some real progress. With regard to paying people “what they’re worth”, I suspect the newly unemployed government workers won’t like what the private sector thinks they’re worth. It’s likely a number far less than they were glomming off the taxpayers and will likely require far more effort. Have a great New Year.
If like me, you are trying to get help from government agencies like Social Security, the drop in federal employees is not necessarily something to celebrate.
That rests on the presumption that all federal employees are doing useful work. You've worked in big companies, you *know* this is far, far, far from the truth. Why so reflexively contrarian?
No. It does not rest upon that presumption. If you reduce the number of Social Security locations and the number of workers who directly interface with the public then the result is poorer service. If you are going to make cuts then do so where they make sense instead of reflexively cutting willy nilly.
If there were a Post Office on every corner, and you reduced the number by half, would that make any material difference to the average consumer?
This argument comes up every time NYC tries to close a fire house or two. Despite the reality that firefighters are "on" only 15% of the time here - and even that is grossly overinflated by their showing up to countless 911 calls that they are not needed for - any time the local government tries to save some taxpayer dollars, at no measurable risk, there are howls of protest.
Has SS service actually worsened in a substantive sense, or are you just tallying numbers?
Yes. It has gotten worse. You can be hold for five hours or more on the national SS hotline and it can now take a month or longer to make an appointment at a SS location. If you have a disability claim, it now takes about seven months on average for a decision which is about twice what it used to be. This article illustrates the headaches people are experiencing. https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/08/25/staff-cuts-have-have-damaged-social-security-former-commissioner-says/
That's not fair to say. Of course, there are places and people where it makes sense to do cuts but not necessarily to those who directly serve the public.
In MN, an intermediate step is to have 135,000 Somalis dump USD Billions in the hole before filling.
Spot on Peter! I’d add another idea. The Government, some of them elected, but many appointed, have been so irresponsible with money that their excessive spending and borrowing is reducing our earnings by much more than the “ advertised inflation rate” for a small moment I thought without reelection worries Trump would actually care about deficit spending and try to reduce our debts. Nope he’s another big government lover like almost all the rest in government. 7 days a week 365 is what we do to combat these morons in charge, but that just forces us to stay in the highest tax bracket and depletes our earnings even more! That which can’t go on forever won’t!
We need a return to Calvin Coolidge's style of presidential leadership. Axing 271,000 federal employees is a good start, but the budget lines are so bloated with entitlement I'm not sure it's possible. So another good start is to attack the fraud and profiteers off "the system" and lay it bare to the bone.
Excellent post, Peter! 👍 Hopefully, the 271,000 reduction in government employment is just a start! Slice another 500,000 and we could make some real progress. With regard to paying people “what they’re worth”, I suspect the newly unemployed government workers won’t like what the private sector thinks they’re worth. It’s likely a number far less than they were glomming off the taxpayers and will likely require far more effort. Have a great New Year.
If like me, you are trying to get help from government agencies like Social Security, the drop in federal employees is not necessarily something to celebrate.
That rests on the presumption that all federal employees are doing useful work. You've worked in big companies, you *know* this is far, far, far from the truth. Why so reflexively contrarian?
No. It does not rest upon that presumption. If you reduce the number of Social Security locations and the number of workers who directly interface with the public then the result is poorer service. If you are going to make cuts then do so where they make sense instead of reflexively cutting willy nilly.
If there were a Post Office on every corner, and you reduced the number by half, would that make any material difference to the average consumer?
This argument comes up every time NYC tries to close a fire house or two. Despite the reality that firefighters are "on" only 15% of the time here - and even that is grossly overinflated by their showing up to countless 911 calls that they are not needed for - any time the local government tries to save some taxpayer dollars, at no measurable risk, there are howls of protest.
Has SS service actually worsened in a substantive sense, or are you just tallying numbers?
Yes. It has gotten worse. You can be hold for five hours or more on the national SS hotline and it can now take a month or longer to make an appointment at a SS location. If you have a disability claim, it now takes about seven months on average for a decision which is about twice what it used to be. This article illustrates the headaches people are experiencing. https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/08/25/staff-cuts-have-have-damaged-social-security-former-commissioner-says/
Ah, but I had some experience with this the past couple years. The "worse" I experienced predates Trump.
As for the "former commissioner," see what I wrote about incentives. Government drones aren't the sorts to undermine their jobs.
I'd also not be in the least surprised if the slowdowns were deliberate. Go-Slow is a time-honored tradition.
By your style of thinking, we'd never cut anything.
That's not fair to say. Of course, there are places and people where it makes sense to do cuts but not necessarily to those who directly serve the public.
Amen. One of your best…and yet, based simply on logic & common sense.
Less is more.