Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on October 10, 2023, 08:27:10 AM

So given that on the last day last week we added another $35 billion to the debt, then in a year we would save approximately 3.5 hours worth of debt. All just to hammer some working class people a bit more.

I don't have any problem with people getting paid time off (PTO as you seem to affectionately call it) as long as their EMPLOYER pays for it and not the taxpayers. And I take issue with you calling federal employees "working class people" they get more benefits than people that work in the private sector more raises everything more. They are privileged class, not working class and I dont like them getting paid for not working since the taxpayers are paying for it.

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God forbid they get any PTO! Probably worth pointing out that most other developed nations give their workers somewhere in the region of 30 days a year.

why should only federal employees get paid for not working. why can't fast food employees or people that drive for uber? why put federal employees into a privileged position and then force me to pay for their holidays?

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You are barking up the wrong tree, here. The deficit and the debt will not be solved by squeezing workers ever harder and making average people poorer and poorer.

well again, federal employees are not poor or average. they are above average income they get all the benefits and everything why should I the taxpayer have to foot the bill for them to celebrate Martin Luther King day?

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We need much larger scale institutional changes, which will never happen precisely because they would not benefit the people at the top responsible for making such decisions.

well so you're saying the leaders don't want to erase the budget deficit and national debt? well if that's a fact then why even discuss the national debt problem at all since it will never be solved. but the way i see it, every 5 or 10 billion you can shave off helps. assuming we want to erase the national debt. maybe that's not a safe assumption though, apparently according to you.

For example, we discussed this earlier in this thread:

Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on March 23, 2023, 09:39:22 AM

The completely unnecessary extra 6-7% of GDP we spend over and above European countries because of our moronic healthcare system equates to about $1.4 trillion.

If we moved to a healthcare system which cut out insurers and useless middlemen, we wouldn't save billions a year, but trillions. Every other developed nation manages it - why not us? Because our politicians are bought by medical insurance companies.

so your whole thing is, let's not make small changes because so far we haven't been able to make larger ones. that doesn't seem very rational Angry