Name:   Talullahhound - Subject:   Dems finally turn on hillary Date:   12/12/2016 12:38:51 PM

Actually, probably not a lot.  Some sort of budget was passed to keep organizations afloat, but I doubt there were any new allocations.  Now if I had multi-year dollars (that didn't have to be spent in one year), I might be tempted to get stuff on contract in a hurry, but that would be for stuff already in development, production or allocated to a program.  Trump is going to have a hard time with Congress when it comes to cutting budgets - because all those dollars mean jobs in a Congressman's district and if that goes away, it's hard to get re-elected.  Take Joint Strike Fighter - jobs in 45 states and in 6 foreign countries.  No way they were ever going to cancel that program.  The more slash the dollars from the program, the more expensive it becomes, because you extend the production schedule, which is expensive or you reduce the number of units and that costs more money too, in the long run. 

And while I am on the subject I have three other myths I need to address.  One is that not passing a budget and issuing a CRA means that the government cannot do anything more than keep spending levels the same as the previous year (so you can end up working under CRA for years), but it doesn't take into account inflation, but your operations and maintenence costs continue to rise.  So you are not saving any money. 

When you hear about government employees getting a raise from Congress, Congress does not allocate additional dollars to cover it. So agencies and departments have to find the money - less training, holding jobs open longer, not making planned computer buys, you get the picture.  I know people find that hard to believe, but it is the truth. 

Thirdly, hiring freezes do not save money.  It looks good to the taxpayers, but really, all you are doing is decreasing the cost of operations and maintenance, and increasing the cost of aquisition dollars.  There is work that has to be done.  When you don't have enough civilians to do the job, thanks to the Clinton Gore Reinventing Government, you hire contractors.  The idea behind this was that you can let contractors go when they are no longer needed and save the government money.  But the truth is, instead of paying for civilian benefits, you are now paying overhead for contractors.  And most professional grade contractors cost as much as govenrment employees.  And every option year on a contract, the cost goes up.  Because no one ever says that "we have less money, we will do less and cut things that need to be done.  Instead they say "we've still got to get this work done and we have to hire outside help to do it.  Now, people that are on contract cannot make decisions for the government, so govenrment people still have to sign off on their work. 

I am not trying to show off my knowledge at all. I was schooled by some of the best government accountants and budget people.  I had a lot of misperceptions about money and budgets.  Here is another one - when you do your budget, you always pad additional lines with things that you may or may not end up doing - so that way you can go to the Comptroller and ask them to reprogram money to any lines that you are short of fund on. 

And then there is reimbursible dollars, but that is for another discussion. 

Just don't be fooled by the media and the WH and Congress.