Courtesy of TPM Reader SD, here’s the latest from Rudy on the trail …
To cut government spending, Giuliani promised to replace only half of the federal workers expected to retire over the next eight to 10 years. He promised to retain the tax cuts put in place by the Bush administration. Those two actions, he said, would require that average Americans take more responsibility for their lives.
Anybody know some solid estimates for how many federal workers are scheduled/predicted to retire over the next decade? I’m sure there are pretty detailed estimates. I’d be curious to see some of the details sketched out on this one.
A headline that sort of captures where we are.
From The Politico: “Dean says Jews can go to heaven”
And how is it we got here exactly?
Late Update: Okay, couldn’t help myself. Here’s the second graf of the piece …
In another statement likely to stir debate among the evangelical Christians his party is urgently trying to court, Dean also asserted âthere are no bars to heaven for anybody,â according to the report by JTA, a 90-year-old non-profit organization which calls itself âthe global news service of the Jewish people.â
It is a risky move, isn’t it? As long as Democrats are trying to court people of faith, it would probably be the wiser course of action to note the probable damnation of the Jews.
Even Later Update: I actually found it even more shocking that more than a few readers read this post apparently just after having their irony and sarcasm surgically removed.
Okay, we’re starting to get some good tips to help us flesh out Rudy’s new promise that he’ll replace only 50% of federal workers slated to retire over the next decade.
TPM Reader JR points us to this article in Government Executive magazine that notes that …
The government faces a potential wave of exits over the next decade as about 60 percent of federal workers overall and 90 percent of senior executives become eligible for retirement.
Now, I’ve never been much of a math wiz. But half of 60% is I think 30%. So Rudy seems to be saying he’ll cut the federal workforce by about 1/3, which sounds like it would likely have some pretty serious consequences.
Meanwhile, another recent study says that over the next two years alone the federal government plans to hire 193,000 new workers for “mission-critical” jobs. And about 1/3 of those are in “security, protection, compliance and enforcement.”
The study also notes that most of those new hires are for the Department of Homeland Security for stuff like customs enforcement, border security and immigration enforcement. Presumably he’s willing to gut those enforcement responsibilities.
Edwards won’t promise to back Hillary if she’s eventual Democratic nominee.
Administration refuses to provide Congress with key Iraq strategy document.
It’s not the way I’d like celebrate it, as I’m home sick today. But I didn’t want to let the day go by without noting that today is the 7th Anniversary of Talking Points Memo. The first post to the site was on November 13th, 2000. You can see what TPM looked like at different stages of its evolution in this episode of TPMtv we did back in July when we debuted the most recent redesign of the site.
CNN called out on sloppy journalism practices by professional wrestling organization.
Why does Camp Hillary push back so aggressively against the media?
Remember John Bolton? The neocon installed at the State Department to keep Colin Powell under control and then later given a recess appointment to be US Ambassador. I could give you a list of particulars but suffice it to say that Bolton was a key factor in basically all the Bush White House’s most disastrous decisions and he’s still got the Iran war coming up.
Now he’s back on the airwaves with a new book and the ear of a certain Republican presidential candidate who’s running on his record as mayor of New York. We bring you all the ugly details in today’s episode of TPMtv …