Turns out the administration and Democrat news peddling about the sequestration leveling utter destruction on our country is apocryphal nonsense, though its not because they didn’t try. And it’s actually a little disappointing.
Here I was ready to witness the collapse of a functioning society because government would have to spend a little less. Ready for neck tied government bureaucrats leaping from windows upon hearing that they’ve been furloughed and no longer able to afford their standard of living without a few days of their low 6 figured salaries.
Ready to marvel at the metaled gleam of congested runways below lazily collapsing spirals of jets gradually descending to the strips for a landing every two to three hours because adequate numbers of Air Traffic Controllers were simply unavailable to field requests for landings and takeoffs.
Not quite ready, but was accepting that the hospitals and sewage systems would be overflowing from the results of the massive consumption of food not receiving the proper safety inspections.
What do we get? No sinecures leaping from buildings, the delinquency rate of the air traffic system is no more so than usual, and the sewage and hospitals are holding steady with the typical flow of refuse.
Don’t get me wrong, the apparatchiks have been trying their little tax grabbing hearts off to make you feel the pain as one Big Gov email suggests, from the Washington Times (emphasis mine):
An email from one federal agency indicated that it was intentionally placing the brunt of the cuts on critical and high-profile positions instead of low-priority jobs to lend credence to the dire warnings it had proffered to Congress in a plea for more funding.
“We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘[the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service] would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be,” leaders said.
Nice that they’re working for us. Some impact… yawn. How sad is that? They couldn’t even get that to work.
But that’s only part of the story, the other part is they never really gave up their thirst for more, more, more. And they’re back on track, gorging on your wallet. Because as it turns out: “furlough” means “hire” in bureaucrat speak and these guys doing just that. And for nice paying gigs.
Excerpts from same Washington Times report (emphasis mine):
- Since sequestration kicked in March 4, the government has posted openings for 4,300 federal job titles to hire some 10,300 people.
- The median position has a salary topping out at $76,000, and one-fourth of positions pay $113,0
- Altogether, the jobs will pay up to $792 million per year. Including job postings that have been open since before sequestration, the government is in the market for 27,000 employees who will make up to $1.8 billion a year.
- The jobs posted since sequestration include 10,195 positions at the Department of Agriculture, 2,800 at the Department of Veterans Affairs and 1,611 the Department of Health and Human Services, Agriculture Department’s Forest Service, Forest Service,
- Nearly 200 positions related to Army-run bowling alleys are also open.
- One position in Hawaii pays up to $110,000 — plus a 12 percent cost-of-living adjustment — to oversee such recreation facilities.
- At the Transportation Security Administration, which said sequestration would result in widespread flight delays, 436 positions, almost all for security officers, have been posted since March 4.
- TSA also is hiring for quality assurance, logistics management, information technology and program analyst roles. Each of these jobs can pay more than $137,000 a year.
Who knew the sequester meant hiring 27,000 more people at $1.8 billion a year? No wonder I’m disappointed. Good Lord, imagine how insane the numbers would be without the sequester.