re: #201 Sir John Barron

The federal hiring freeze DT announced doesn’t make much sense. If the “real” unemployment rate is actually much higher than that reported by the feds, and people have given up looking for work, what sense does it make to close off a potential source of the jobs people apparently need? Not all federal jobs are in the DC area, after-all.

I know, I know…don’t try to make sense out of any of this.

How can Trump make good on his promise to fix the VA if they’re subject to that hiring freeze too. Part of the problem is that there are vacancies in positions critical to improving the VA’s customer-facing operations. If those positions go unfilled, that means longer lines, wait times, etc., because there aren’t enough people to do the job.

Same thing with the IRS. The GOP has been slowly starving the IRS for years, and complaining about customer service for even longer. Gutting the IRS enforcement and audit branches might reduce the chances you get an audit, but it also means that less revenue is collected as more people get away with improper credits, deductions, etc. That takes people to review returns and to answer phones to address tax questions.

Even Trump’s nominee Mnuchin addressed this in his confirmation hearing that the IRS was undermanned - he was surprised at how undermanned it was, and that this was reducing the amount of revenue collected and expected by lawmakers.

So yeah, it doesn’t make much sense, but we’re talking GOP math here. It never makes any sense.