The answer to part of your question is in the link you sent
"Specifically, they are questioning whether NAFTA and World Trade
Organization rules will apply to state and city governments receiving
stimulus money for local infrastructure projects." If the states
tell the Feds to buzz off, then the Feds are going to be left playing
make-nice with other countries without anything to back up their
claims.
And, I think Marie's statements give you the answer to her angst.
Bob said that taxpayer funded employees are a drain. Marie is a
taxpayer funded employee. Bob's comment was a generalization and
I'm thinking Marie took it as a personal attack.
Now, having worked for the Feds and at the county and city level, and
having collected a pay check from those same taxpayer dollars, I can
tell you that a great big % of my fellow employees were professional
gold bricks! I personally think that the whole paid holidays and
sick leave thing are ridiculous with the sick leave being massively
abused! Anyone, and I mean ANYONE who says otherwise is playing
pretend! Government employees, in general, take longer breaks,
longer lunch hours, do more personal business on the clock and take
more items home than private sector employees!
Ya know, I was no model employee and I'm certainly not a whiz kid at
what I did. What I am is someone who is easily bored <g> I need to
be busy. I couldn't spend my time wandering the halls or sitting in
the break room yapping. In 6 months, I set up a new filing system,
completely updated and cateloged and set up job specific binders to
put in all the city's vehicles. Something that had been worked on for
FIVE YEARS and gotten no where! Three employees had been working on
it. Now, do the math on the wages and toss that money down the
drain! Five years, three employees! Something that could be and was
done in 6 months! That is typical. So, Bob is right.
BTW, CA beens doing something of this nature, plus sueing the Feds on
and off since they became a state <g> I would say that the tipping
point came with NAFTA and NCLB and this latest bit is the straw that
broke the camel's back!
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