Apr 12, 2017

Hiring Freeze Ends

     From the New York Times:
The Trump administration on Wednesday will lift the hiring freeze that it had imposed on the federal work force, even as it directs agencies to submit plans for personnel cuts and other restructuring moves to fit the budget blueprint released by President Trump last month. ...
The administration is now making clear that it is not giving a green light for agencies to start hiring; instead, the White House is seeking long-term plans from each agency to, in most cases, prepare for cuts. ...

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, I got an idea, how about getting rid of all of the midlevel management in ODAR? How about getting rid of the Recon level? How about getting rid of the Appeals Council? I could go on and on, but you get the drift...

Anonymous said...

Get rid of the program except for CAL. Hand control back to the states, block grants.

Anonymous said...

for 9:18 AM and other feeders at the appeals trough - how about getting rid of an archaic appeals de novo system - and close the record after recon - and make reps accountable for appealing errors of law - like every other appeals system does.

Anonymous said...

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/328506-trump-cut-social-security-reforms-from-budget-propsal


Mick is trying so hard!

Anonymous said...

@10:02 that is such a ridiculous proposal. Why make someone wait 18 months for a hearing yet tell them there can't be new evidence? It'd gum up the works even more, with all the people filing new claims because their claim at the ALJ level was denied because the record has been closed for 18+ months.

Anonymous said...

The extreme right genius politicians in my state make the Trump team look good. The republican party has taken my state back to the dark ages in less than a decade. They are ready for more responsibility in the form of block grants for sure. The money will go someplace. I hope the American people wise up and send all of you wrecking balls back to the looney fringe where you truly belong and put you in the dust bin of history.

Anonymous said...

Same where I live. They have destroyed public education and teachers are fleeing the state. The place is so broke and cuts are so deep they are threatening DHS services to seniors and children. They also raided a state rainy day fund without proper disclosure. I can't imagine the disaster they would create if they had authority over social security spending. State government here is dismal.

Anonymous said...

@9:03 and 10:06:

BRAVO!

The very same things are true in the red southern state I live which has a Republican Supermajority controlling the entire state, and nearly all the Republicans, except the governor, are of the right wing extremist fringe. They have already taken this state back many years in the fringe legislation they have passed, especially concerning women's reproductive rights, They have also passed gun rights legislation to the point of ridiculousness, i.e., allowing guns in bars, on college campuses, locked in employee cars in employers parking lots, and in parks. In addition, the Bible and God legislation proposed and passed has all but destroyed the line between church and state. As an Attorney who grew up in the 1960's and 1970's in the Midwest, not the Bible Belt, watching this transformation has shocked me to my very core. In my wildest dreams growing up, I never thought I would see America slide so far backwards, let alone at break neck pace.

Anonymous said...

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/memoranda/2017/m-17-22.pdf

Anonymous said...

@11:20 What you see as a "slide so far backwards" other view as a return of rights to the people. What you view as "extremist fringe" is what some consider the last eight years of policy designed to soften and weaken the nation. Seems that the majority of your state agree, so perhaps it isn't as "fringe" as you feel it is because it doesn't line up with your agenda.

Anonymous said...

History will be the judge. Try incarcerating 50% percent of the youth that come out of these broken school systems and impoverished homes. You guys are destroying the open, prosperous America I grew up in. You leave wreckage in your wake.

Anonymous said...

Like Colin Powell warned George W. about Iraq--"you break it, you buy it." You guys are breaking it and you will buy it. You won't deceive the American people forever. Consider what happened after 1932. You had maximum power in the 1920's and then after the disaster you were out of power for seventy years. Seventy years just wasn't long enough.

Anonymous said...

1:02 I'm telling you quite plainly that your crew in my state have committed governmental malpractice and have run the state into the ground financially and left it broke. They improperly raided the state rainy day fund and one of the top "leaders" was caught in a cheap motel room with a male minor smoking marijuana and was arrested and had to resign. He was a big political family values man and bible belting gun toter of course. If you give these crooks and idiots the "freedom" to oversee social security funds they will steal or misplace the money, period. These guys are not fit to govern a kindergarten much less a state. Your rule here has been a disaster. Your people here are not fit to govern.

Anonymous said...

@10:57

If your way is so much better, then why didn't you win the seats needed to control the state or even make a showing? If it is so horrible, then how did you lose? Must be that the message isn't clear, the candidates not up to snuff and a lack of organization and ability. Show me a party that has not had a leader caught in a motel, or with evidence on a blue dress.

The states are in a better position to handle social services than the federal government. A program that works in the urban east will fail miserably in the rural west. The states know where the money is needed the most, the states know concentrations of poverty, low preforming schools, high rates of disability and locations high in Medicaid application. The fed has no idea, you cant run a country this large from so far away, even with good intentions you make a one size fits all program that ends up being miserable and a failure.

Local control is the best approach.

Anonymous said...

AMEN, 10:57!

Anonymous said...

That's what they were saying down in Selma and Tuscaloosa back in the early 1960's wasn't it? You're on the same side of history as John Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, and George Wallace it sounds like. History will judge you more by your actions than your words. Interesting we have a 21st century attack on voting right which is merely a thinly veiled return to old Jim Crow by you folks. Not buying what you're selling. America has been going in the wrong direction since good old Ronnie Reagan--who I believe kicked off his 1980 campaign in one of those notorious towns down south.

Anonymous said...

I believe an old political tool called gerrymandering has helped out quite a bit along with a U.S. Supreme Courts case called Citizens United. You guys are using dark money to buy the republic just like you did a hundred years ago. The American people are starting to catch on.

Anonymous said...

AMEN @ 7:26 and 7:30!

Anonymous said...

The only agency that really needs cuts is DOD, unless we plan on waging a world-scale war.

Anonymous said...

The American people are not catching on to anything, they are fat, lazy and stupid. Voter turn out is a joke, even in presidential elections we cannot reach 50% of the vote. The only thing they are catching is what is on the little screen in their hands, and as we have seen it can be manipulated to make them do anything.

For those saying local control doesn't work, I believe you need to go down to some of your local social services. You will see a decided lack of federal and in a lot of cases state money, with the majority coming from more local sources. Food pantries and kids back pack weekend meals programs do the vast majority of the work without any funding from feds and states. Why? because there isn't any funding out there. Keep thinking you can legislate away poverty hunger and ignorance. It didn't work in Rome and it has never worked here.

Anonymous said...

"and it has never worked here"

Whoopsee, somebody doesn't know the first thing about New Deal and Great Society programs and their outcomes. What a do-do, lol.

Anonymous said...

I still see hunger, poverty and ignorance, so yep never worked here, and now we are seeing even more.

Anonymous said...

Ignorance is well and alive!!' Just visit a local SSA office and you'll see. They treat the public like craps! Other foreign born employees are be picked on with full disrespect like you wouldn't believe as I had witnessed!! The Trump Administration should get rid of ALL these muti-racial bigots!! Time for absolute swamp-draining!!

Anonymous said...

As a Native American by blood and family ties, I do not know what happened at SSA offices around the country other than the one near our reservation. I can shate this much as an experience, members of the management here, once each of them on board, they think that they are invincible by picking on and harassing members of their own respective race to prove their toughness and self-worth. These are the worst kind of managers and human beings, regardless if they are blacks, native Americans...etc

Anonymous said...

After this past great election, many do not like any one looks foreign, sounds foreign even if one grew up here or was born here! It has really shown at the local field offices and their respective Regional headquarters that race is everything and racism is everywhere!! True colors of America's workplace are now on display by and between SSA coworkers and among supervisors and managers toward their subordinates. The Regional Headquarters and Area Director offices are into the action as well by way of ignoring discrimination and harassment complaint. It is about the survival of the fittest, and the groups with the majority would win out... God bless the rest!!!!

Anonymous said...

Looks like it trending RIGHT at SSA!

Anonymous said...

How do you think an Arab-American, Afghan-American or a Pakistan-American employee feels like working at a local field office with these kind of racist parasites? We have plenty of them here in Michigan.

Anonymous said...

You must have meant "complaints" with a big "S" ?! My brother worked for SSA but quit early with disability retirement because of their relentless attacks on those who filed complaints like him. He was tired of being civil with a vicious bunch of bureaucratic mobsters. I wouldn't be surprised if their EEO officers are now busy with an increase in such claims. Guess time for cleaning house from the inside out.

Anonymous said...

The hiring freeze should have been just a start at ODAR. The lazy and incompetent ALJ's of which there are many should be fired. Why no one seems to understand how huge a problems the ALJ's laziness and incompetence is defies all logic.