Giuliani: Kill the Federal Workforce

Wolf Blitzer really gave it a shot with Rudolph Giuliani on CNN's 1/20/08 Late Edition. Rudolph is promoting himself these days as a (income/corporate/estate) tax cutter and the Wolfman tried to pin him down on the disproportionate impact of Giuliani's proposed regressive cuts upon the upper class as compared to that on the middle class. He asked the former mayor "for a family earning $500,000 a year, how much would that family save as opposed to a family earning $50,000 a year, how much would that family save?" Of course, Giuliani wouldn't address that, instead estimating how much a family earning "about $80,000" would save. Blitzer tried again, asking "how much would a family making $500,000 a year wind up saving potentially?" Rudolph again claimed he hadn't "calculated it," so Blitzer took a different tack, asking him about budget deficits.

Giuliani then emphasized spending cuts, stating "we wouldn't rehire half the federal civilian employees who come up for retirement. We could save money that way. Forty-two percent are coming up for retirement. We would impose 10 percent spending cuts on all of the civilian agencies." Sure, cut waste, fraud, and abuse- except at the Pentagon.

More ominously, however, it is the perfect Repub plan. With the catastrophic effect these cuts would have on government services, citizens would become far more dissatisfied with, and far angrier at, government- which of course is the beauty of a scheme which would destroy whatever faith Americans still have in the federal government, leading the way to support for destroying Social Security and other essential programs.