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House bill would stop most federal hiring

Partial freeze would be lifted after deficit is resolved

  • By FCW Staff
  • May 06, 2011

Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) doesn’t want the government to hire workers until the $1.6 trillion deficit is resolved, he said in a May 5 statement.

The Federal Hiring Freeze Act of 2011, the first bill introduced by the freshman House member, would put a freeze on the federal workforce with certain exceptions, he said.

Exemptions from his plan would include the U.S. Postal Service and the Postal Regulatory Commission, federal law enforcement positions, personnel reassignments in the same agency, short-term seasonal hiring, and any transitional positions necessitated by a change in presidential administration.

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Reader comments

Tue, May 10, 2011 DC

@ “… Corporations are no more greedy and doing things for their own self interest than most of those living off the government.”
Corporations are making multibillion + dollar profits. They’re paying their execs multimillion even billion dollar salaries and bonuses while refusing to hire American workers and/or continuing to outsource jobs. That’s self-serving greed. The economy would be much better off if they hired workers in America and paid them a living wage instead of hording it. Then there’d be more Americans buying products and paying taxes and fewer people who needed help from the government – due to lack of jobs – just to survive. Thinking that living on a few hundred dollars a month while out of a job is greedy but making billions and firing workers isn’t, is part of the greed problem that’s ruining the economy and shrinking the middle class.

@ “You fool. No corporation has ever personally paid taxes - it is always passed to the consumer in the form of product pricing.”

The tax rate – corporate and personal - has been down for about 10 years now. Have the prices gone down? Have more jobs been created? Corporations are posting record profits, are prices going down? Are they creating more jobs? No. Essentially rewarding them by keeping the roads paved, the planes flying, and nation secure without expecting them to contribute part of their multimillion/billion dollar profits is corporate welfare and an enormous entitlement program that doesn’t even have a name, much less any return on investment.

How about we support our country and our fellow citizens, not the corporations who support themselves firsts, their execs 2nd, and their country and its citizens WAY down the list?

Now, as to the actual subject of this article: What reducing the federal workforce does is increase the likelihood of errors being made, of dangers being missed. It will also result in the hiring of more contractors. Contractors come with payroll, overhead costs, contract modifications, and big profits for their corporations which equal higher costs to us, the taxpayers.

A growing economy means more tax revenues. How does taking more people OUT of the workforce, resulting in more folks not buying goods and services and paying taxes, help the economy in any way? It doesn’t.

Tue, May 10, 2011

The bureacratic red tape is still in place. Cutting jobs only makes things tougher to those remaining. Longer to get things moving. Some folks cannot see the forest for the trees!!

Tue, May 10, 2011 Dennis Mobile, AL

Marino is holding the wrong end of the tool; let the budget and the work define the workforce.

Mon, May 9, 2011

Get out of the war business. We couldn't afford to go to war back in 2001 - 2002 to begin with. Other commenters are correct that most folks only know what the news and politicians sensationalize. These are the folks that still think our President is not an American Citizen!! If and when the war ends. How and where will all the Veterans coming home make a living?

Mon, May 9, 2011

"When Reagan helped cut taxes early in his administration, tax revenues actually went up greatly after that." FALSE "Increasing tax rates do not increase revenue after a certain point - which is well known by well informed people that we are past that point." FALSE (tax rates are, historically speaking, very low). But thank you for your corporate thinktank free speech contribution to the FUD.

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