Re: McCain & HR Bill 1108

Test Control - I'm a FERS emp as well and have a fair amt of sick leave saved up and only into my 8th year but in reality the saved sick leave doesn't amt too much in retirement. I'm a bean counter and I've already done the calculations and it's very small amt added to your retirement annuity no matter how much you make. It pays out more as your normal wage if you take it instead of keeping it. I don't see how it could benefit anyone by saving it and then having it "add time" other than maybe being able to retire a few months early - if they would allow that but moneywise - it fails. Remember FERS gets like half of what CSRS gets in terms of percentage of their high 3. Even if you could add 1 yr (lots of sick leave) it would maybe add a $90/month tops - that is if you are getting paid pretty well ($120,00 - high 3) when you retire - if you make less it's even worse. Right now my hrly pay is $35 if I saved it until later but used it, I might get $50hr+ - if I used 2 hrs/month = $100

Re: McCain & HR Bill 1108

As a continuation from above...
Think of it this way FERS gets like 30-40 something percent of high three. If you end your career say making $40/hr (or more or less) if you add it to your "time" you're really only getting 30-40 percent of that time - as it's used in the calculation. So really your getting 30-40 percent of that money. Now it is an annual benefit so it does add up but your "time off" from work is just more than pay too so that has to be factored in. For FERS, our retirement is the TSP - hands down (other than additional investments). People won't be able to live off of FERS pensions alone - unless you really scale back and money stashed somewhere. Using sick leave at your normal wage just makes more sense than saving it. Even if I used it now at a much lower rate - it would be better than to save it and get $90/month in 2030 which is peanuts compared ot inflation. It's a true example of the time value of money. It's worth more now than it would be 20 yrs from now

Re: McCain & HR Bill 1108

It's time for a contrary view. Those who say it pays to use it instead of save it have me cornfused. If you used sick leave on a day you aren't sick, you make no more money than if you worked on that day. So if it's a cash analysis you are making, that analysis fails.

On the other hand, if you do odd jobs on the days you claim to be sick, you get paid for that day plus whatever the odd job brings you. In that cash analysis you are ahead.

In either scenario you are being dishonest. In scenario one you are lying to your employer. In scenario two you are lying to your employer as well as committing a felony.

Re: Changes

Bureaucrat, your entrenchment is showing. He hasn't sold out to the radical right and you can't demonstrate that he has.

Re: Changes

Analyst, your own bias is showing. What do you call the selection of Sarah Palin - an unknown nonentity - if not a bone thrown to the knuckehead right? Don't kid yourself; with a running mate like that, he's no friend to the rank & file federal worker.

Re: Changes

the "knuckehead right" huh? Speaking of bias, you're so steeped in it you've stooped to name calling against the "other side".

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

Re: Changes

One of the key signs of a committed far right or far left outlook is that such a person will very quickly make a political discussion personal and start calling people names and making unfounded accusations.

This approach prevents any real objectivity as they strive to prop up their end of the political spectrum no matter what.

Re: Changes

Analyst DoD,

McCain has sold out to the right in picking Palin. They even said that on Fox news as well as other networks. She was picked to try to please the right being a Mom with anti-abortion views, conservative values, religious background, smaller government...many ideas of which McCain himself has voted for....so in a way she is the "right-winged" part of the ticket because he's not getting a lot of right winged support on his own. I'm an independent and I just don't get the whole picking her over 2 former governors - governors in our presidential past have done fairly decent with the exception to the current one. All the money that has been spend on this war while people over here are needing health insurance, jobs, food, homes, etc. I just think we didn't exhaust all our options before going over. We don't even know if this government will be able to ever stand on it's own. No one is sure of that. If anyone thought nation building was easy - they were diliarious!

Re: Changes

Here we have one of the classic smoke screens of the left - smaller and less instrusive government, religious foundation, anti abortion etc. are not far right concepts as they will try to tell you. They're mainstream American concepts.

From the perspective of those way out on the left though, anything outside their own little world is viewed as right wing.

Re: Changes

Palin is a superficial, & shallow, attempt to get the vote of the evangelicals, anit-abortion crowd, gun rights fanatics, & even females ready to vote for any female. Will this gamble work? My guess is that she will hurt him, more than she helps him ultimately. Many voters will see this crass & clumsy tactic, for what it really is!!

Re: Changes

Fed Peasant, if you can fight through your personal dislike for her it becomes obvious that she is the most administratively qualified of any of the four on the major party tickets. She has been a mayor, a governer and run a company of her own in the private sector. That requires that you actually be able to manage things, be a good delegator, balance conflicting interests and such. None of the other three can match her experience in this.

Re: Changes

Well this is interesting, now we have folks like the "Entrenced Bureaucrat" and "Fedpeasant" referring to our next Vice-President" as a non-entity and her selection as crass. You all are obviously upset because now there is an additional part to make the Republican team so much better and it shows what a joke and lack of qualifications the junior senator from Illinois really has. Get use to it Palin will be in office as VP until 2016 then as President until 2024. She will rank up with our greatest President Ronald Reagan and BHO will be a footnote in history.

Re: Changes

Gov. Palin's positions need to be thoroughly examined. For example, she supports hunting wolves from airplanes. She does not believe that mankind has contributed to global warming. She opposes abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. She supports failed abstinence-only sex education. When mayor, she sought to ban books from the public library. She is under investigation for allegedly abusing her power as governor to help her sister in a messy divorce by getting her ex-brother-in-law fired. She ran for governor on a position of supporting the "Bridge to Nowhere." She has big money ties to the indicted Senator Ted Stevens. She exploits her son's Iraq service for political gain. She left the Town of Wasilla, population of less than 10,000, almost $20 million in debt. She believes that our invasion of Iraq is "God's Work." These positions of Governor Sarah Palin give a picture of someone, who should never be in the situation where she is a heartbeat of a 72 year old man away from being President of the United States of America. Her extreme positions on all these issues need to be made very public.

Re: Changes

Fed Peasant: That's a pretty bold comment for you to make about someone you know very little about. Yes, she will get votes from evangelical Christians who are opposed to abortion and have strong family values, because that's what we are all about. Guess you liked having someone in the White House having an extra-marital affair on government time and had the morals of an alley cat. Our country doesn't need any more trash in the White House.

Re: Changes

I cannot believe the people who say that the McCain-Palin ticket is for reform. If they were, they would be denouncing the 8 years of the Bush administration. That is not true, because McCain has supported the Bush Administration 90 % of the time according to McCain.
McCain also supports more relaqtively permanent tax cuts for the wealthy as Bush does, while giving the middle class small temporary takes cuts. The wealthy get most of the dividends (cut to 15% max). The wealthy got larger rate cuts. The middle class got child credit tax cuts (if usable and temporary). The middle class got college credits which are temporary.
Do not forget the war in Iraq. How many wealthy people are there are soldiers? Lots more middle and lower middle class reservists who had no clue about going there.
This is what George Bush supports and this is what McCain-Palin supports.
Oh reform. palin wqants creatinism taught in school as a science. They both want to eliminate abortion options.

Re: Changes

worker - if you're talking about McCain voting 90% with the Republican side then you're not saying anything of substance. That's how the most votes in the Senate go. That's true for both sides of the aisle.

Your tax comments conveniently omit the fact that the top 10% of taxpayers pay well over 50% of all income tax right now, and thats with the current tax cuts in place. Sure doesn't sound like the rich getting all the breaks now, does it?

As far as your statement about their being not as many wealthy reservists in Iraq as the middle class, don't forget that there are many times more middle class citizens in general than wealthy. It's got nothing to do with what somebody supports, it's a reflection of economic demographics in general.

Your expectation that McCain/Palin should denounce the past 8 years is incredibly unrealistic. No candidate of either party is going to denounce the previous administration if it's of the same party. That's a political reality.

Re: Changes

I would like to know if anyone has a Democrat for
McCain/Palin sign? I need one.

Does anyone know what it costs to hunt wolves from an airplane. Sounds fun!!!!

I enjoyed the debate, it made me realize how much of the specifics McCain knows and how general and broad Obama speaks. 1 vote McCain.

Re: Change in Government

They would still get their "pork" budgets one way or another. NO politician is going to give up free money for their folks back home...that is a fantasy if you think they'll do that. One easy way to solve the pork spending would be to limit all Congress to 2 - 4yr terms at most...maybe even shorter. That way you can't "work" your way into powerful positions and it would force them to work on things before they leave office. It's a shame it's had to come to this but they are all corrupt in DC - they all need to watch Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and swallow a huge humility pill and hopefully not choke on it.

Re: John McCain won't change

"He voted with Bush 95% of the time"

I didn't know that Presidents got a vote in the Senate..

Re: John McCain won't change

If you look at what legislation or lack of that has been generated out of the Senate in the last eight years, you would be surprised that most of the Senate Democrats have a high voting record "with Bush" as well. Due to partisan rancor in the Senate the majority of crucial bills that would separate someone from Bush have never been brought to the floor. Immigration, Social Security, and Energy reform have never made to the floor in Senate. During Obama's Senate term there has been not been any meaningful legislation for him to vote for or against. Appropriation bills do not define a person as pro Bush or Anti-Bush.

Re: John McCain won't change

Look at the number of bills the democrat controlled congress has passed in the last four years and the count will be pretty small.

Obama scares the bejibbers out of me...if McCain is a bad choice, Obama is worse.

On Palin..read about her and make your own mind up and if not a resident of Alaska, how do you know the facts reported by the "media" are facts???? I am giving her the benefit of a solid review before I decide.

Re: John McCain won't change

To design tso. Your ignorance is bliss. McCain supported Bush's positions 95% of his time in his votes. Get real.
This reflects on his "reforms." His choice of Palin truly shows the lack of reform that will take place.

Re: John McCain won't change

worker - the vast majority of votes in the senate are along party lines. Telling us that a Republican votes with Bush (or telling us that a Democrat votes with a Democratic presidential position) doesn't say anything substantive about the person. It merely describes the partisan nature of Washington.

Those who use this line as a realistic measure need to figure out just how partisan legislators in Washington are.

btw - thank you for the personal insult, I'll give it all the attention it deserves.