TheVarian said:
Do we know which jobs are cut? I saw a post from back country outfitters and they said they were cutting jobs and now it's bad, etc. very "educated" people were up in arms in the comments per usual.
I fully suspect that USDA got a bogey and chose where to cut -- at best a salami slice approach.B-1 83 said:
Impossible! We've been told repeatedly on F16 that they are all fat cats with unbelievable salaries and benefits…….and to do nothing but sit on their asses! Hell, the benefits, duty locations, and huge year end bonuses alone should have swayed them.
A bunch of the firefighters I know like this. They can make enough during the fire season to let them take off 4 or 5 months of the year and ski or travel or do other activities.CanyonAg77 said:
We have a family friend who spent something like 30 years as a "temporary hire" for NFS. Get hired in the summer, go on unemployment in the winter, rinse, repeat. His wife has a full time FSA job, so health care was covered
This needs to be fixed.
You don't hire teachers in the fall and fire them in the spring. When I worked enough land to need a hired hand, I didn't fire them in the winter. I paid them for the year, knowing that we would work 80 hour weeks in the summer, and 0 hour weeks in the winter, at times.
I'm pretty sure the parks have repairs and maintenance that can be done year around when there are no visitors
The Pareto principle is in full effect in law enforcement. It can be more so on the fed side because you don't answer calls for service. Local cops are gonna get work assigned to them. Feds are more of a detective position where you work a few cases.1990AG said:
Have a buddy who retired from ICE 9 months ago. He laid out for a couple months and then went to work for a private firm.
All he does now is biotch about having to work for real.
Yet another instance where USDA and NRCS screwed up over the years. In as much as they used to say Texas SCS/NRCS was "inbred", we took care of our own and kept kids in state as much as possible. Now with the DEI BS of the last few decades, we got summer interns from Kentucky and Oregon vs the Texas kid who could work summers near home. I don't know how those kids made a dime over the summer. We also get new employees from out of state who don't know dick about Texas, and our Texas youngsters who need less training get sent to Montana. Idiots.Junction71 said:
I have a friend who just got on in last 4-5 months with NRCS in Circle, Montana. She moved from Junction to that place. She was just trying to get her "foot in the door" as she was told that after a year or so she could transfer back to Texas. Since she is probationary I'm almost afraid to text her to see if she is still employed.
You don't burn your barn down to run the rats out.Bradley.Kohr.II said:
And the stuff about firing field staff to protect connected people, is why it should be burned down.
There's nothing there worth saving.
Correct...but you do burn the barn down to root out the criminals hiding inside of it with guns. The barn can be easily rebuilt. The criminals need to be gone.B-1 83 said:You don't burn your barn down to run the rats out.Bradley.Kohr.II said:
And the stuff about firing field staff to protect connected people, is why it should be burned down.
There's nothing there worth saving.
Yesterday said:Correct...but you do burn the barn down to root out the criminals hiding inside of it with guns. The barn can be easily rebuilt. The criminals need to be gone.B-1 83 said:You don't burn your barn down to run the rats out.Bradley.Kohr.II said:
And the stuff about firing field staff to protect connected people, is why it should be burned down.
There's nothing there worth saving.
Maybe start with the people firing field staff? My disdain is for any federal agency that has 100k people working for it....which in this case the USDA does.CT'97 said:Yesterday said:Correct...but you do burn the barn down to root out the criminals hiding inside of it with guns. The barn can be easily rebuilt. The criminals need to be gone.B-1 83 said:You don't burn your barn down to run the rats out.Bradley.Kohr.II said:
And the stuff about firing field staff to protect connected people, is why it should be burned down.
There's nothing there worth saving.
Exactly which criminals with guns are hiding in the USDA and Dept. of Interior?
These are folks who have dedicated their lives to helping farmers and ranchers and protecting and preserving our nations outdoors. I don't understand the vitriol aimed at them?
Which agency has 100,000 people working for it? That may be the entire department, but there are 29 agencies within the department, and it looks to me like the individuals in the examples you cited got what they deserved. A bank doesn't close down when an embezzler is found.Yesterday said:Maybe start with the people firing field staff? My disdain is for any federal agency that has 100k people working for it....which in this case the USDA does.CT'97 said:Yesterday said:Correct...but you do burn the barn down to root out the criminals hiding inside of it with guns. The barn can be easily rebuilt. The criminals need to be gone.B-1 83 said:You don't burn your barn down to run the rats out.Bradley.Kohr.II said:
And the stuff about firing field staff to protect connected people, is why it should be burned down.
There's nothing there worth saving.
Exactly which criminals with guns are hiding in the USDA and Dept. of Interior?
These are folks who have dedicated their lives to helping farmers and ranchers and protecting and preserving our nations outdoors. I don't understand the vitriol aimed at them?
And here are some criminals just for starters...
https://www.hudoig.gov/newsroom/press-release/usda-employee-and-others-indicted-public-corruption
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndtx/pr/federal-produce-inspector-indicted-false-reporting-exchange-bribe-payments#:~:text=Federal%20Produce%20Inspector%20Indicted%20for%20False%20Reporting%20in%20Exchange%20for%20Bribe%20Payments,-Wednesday%2C%20December%2020&text=A%20federal%20grand%20jury%20last,District%20of%20Texas%20Leigha%20Simonton.
Like I said...burn it to the grown...see what was absolutely necessary and leave the rest in the dirt.
https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/21165-former-usda-civil-rights-official-charged-with-fraud-kickbacks
https://www.stateoig.gov/investigative-press-release/usda-contractor-admits-giving-gifts-usda-officials-influence-award
https://2001-2009.state.gov/m/ds/rls/22998.htm
All probationary employees were fired, not terminated for cause.Bradley.Kohr.II said:
I suspect most of the people who have left, are terminated for cause/resigning in lieu of termination for cause.
I don't think the rules changed that much, to where Trump can start doing massive layoffs.
Quote:
Exactly which criminals with guns are hiding in the USDA and Dept. of Interior?
These are folks who have dedicated their lives to helping farmers and ranchers and protecting and preserving our nations outdoors. I don't understand the vitriol aimed at them?
Quote:
Well your " bull in the hhina shop" approach is going to get the bull shot. The Republican party will get gutted in the mid terms. Then the Democrats will be the only ones left to rebuild.
What do you think we will end up with then?
You like animal and plant diseases? You like soil erosion and flooding? You like food borne illness? Youre showing you really don't know what all they do.Quote:
The USDA as it stands is not, as a whole, good for tax payers.
CT'97 said:
Well your " bull in the hhina shop" approach is going to get the bull shot. The Republican party will get gutted in the mid terms. Then the Democrats will be the only ones left to rebuild.
What do you think we will end up with then?
Quote:
That right there is my biggest worry, looking at things from a historical perspective. Whenever governments (not just limited to the US) have instituted large scale changes/layoffs (as cost cutting measures), and these changes affect services people receive………..there is almost always harsh blowback in the following election. Throw in the inflation effect of tariffs (again, using history as the standard) and I could see the next elections being very ugly.
Windy City Ag said:Quote:
That right there is my biggest worry, looking at things from a historical perspective. Whenever governments (not just limited to the US) have instituted large scale changes/layoffs (as cost cutting measures), and these changes affect services people receive………..there is almost always harsh blowback in the following election. Throw in the inflation effect of tariffs (again, using history as the standard) and I could see the next elections being very ugly.
Without a doubt . . . I remember Obama starting with a 69% approval rating and the Dems sporting a 257-178 majority in the house and 57-41 majority in the Senate.
That was all incinerated in the next two years.
The only constant is pissed off voters blaming the incumbent.
Sounds like you're agreeing with me. Those things you listed off are how much of the USDA budget? 5% 10%? Nutrition assistance is 71%....that's 162 billion a year. Again, as a whole, the USDA is not good for the American tax payer. Doesn't mean it can't be or should be.B-1 83 said:
Speaking of obtuse…..You like animal and plant diseases? You like soil erosion and flooding? You like food borne illness? Youre showing you really don't know what all they do.Quote:
The USDA as it stands is not, as a whole, good for tax payers.
Some of these can certainly go bye-bye or be combined…..
https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/general-information/agencies
Start with cutting and revamping the SNAP program - there's where the fraud thrives
Agreed . . .the dumbest statements made by politicians is that they have a "mandate."Quote:
The main reason I personally don't get as excited as so many folk with political promises.
CenterHillAg said:
It's February 19. The man's been in office for a day shy of a month, maybe we quit worrying about posturing for mid-terms and focus on doing the dirty work to figure out where the waste starts and stops being funded by our tax dollars. Against all odd he was able to get re-elected, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and see here this ends up. I've got friends and family mixed up in it all, but I don't recall signing a social contract agreeing to continue paying their salaries against all odds. All of us in private industry face similar circumstances with regularity and we have somehow survived. If you can't find a job in private industry to replace your fed job, that says more about you than the system itself.
I worked in/adjacent to "big ag" for close to 20 years, and maybe someone like Centerpole or CanyonAg that has had to work more closely with USDA employees than I have will correct me, but I've seen far more waste and inefficiency out of USDA than expertise in that time, and they need to clean house. FSA employees that love to brag about ghosting from the office to work in side jobs, RMA employees that refused to acknowledge organic farming insurance fraud until a congressional inquiry started, researchers that refused to even consider changes in crop management because it went against data they produced 20 years earlier even the entire industry had shown otherwise, and the list could go on and on. It sucks that some good people will get caught up in this, but if a more efficient organization emerges at the end it will be worth the pain.
