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IRS Sets Withholding Tables as GOP Pledges Paycheck Increase

'...expressed concern that the new tables would “systematically underwithhold income taxes during the 2018 tax year.” That sort of move would boost workers’ pay before the November 2018 congressional elections but could leave them “owing federal income tax when they file in 2019,” according to a Jan. 8 letter to the Treasury Department from Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Representative Richard Neal of Massachusetts...'

Reference: www.bloomberg.com
Tags: Withholding Tables, income taxes, 2018 Taxes,

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Treasury Suspends Investment Into Federal Employee Retirement Funds to Avoid Hitting Debt Ceiling

'...The two funds are the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund (CSRDF) and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund. Mnuchin said the government can no longer fully invest in these funds as a way to avoid exceeding the debt ceiling. He noted, however, that once the debt limit is raised, the funds will be made whole again, much along the lines of what is done with the TSP’s G Fund...'

Reference: www.fedsmith.com
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Here's how the Republican tax cuts would actually be felt by regular Americans

'...the link between the tax bill and a change in take-home pay may not be obvious to all workers, because lots of other factors can cause take-home pay to change in January. For example, some workers (including federal employees) get annual raises on January 1...'

Reference: www.businessinsider.com
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CSRS & FERS Disability Retirement: Life’s silent opera

'...For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal worker from performing one or more of the essential elements of the Federal or Postal worker’s job, life’s silent opera begins. It is time to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, because – while no one acknowledges the “voices” and “sounds” of the medical condition, the “movements” are there, of the Agency beginning to realize less-than-acceptable performance; of using too much SL or extending one’s FMLA and remaining on LWOP...'

Reference: federaldisabilityretirement.wordpress.com
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House bill would eliminate existing federal tax breaks for state and local income or sales taxes

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House Won't Accept Repeal of Local Tax Break, Brady Says

'...The House bill would eliminate existing federal tax breaks for state and local income or sales taxes...'

Reference: www.bloomberg.com
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Sen. Rand Paul Recovering From 5 Broken Ribs After Assault

'...trying to figure out why Paul's neighbor, a fellow medical doctor, might allegedly have attacked him with enough force to fracture five ribs. Paul was reportedly tackled while he was mowing the grass at his home in Bowling Green, Ky...'

Reference: www.npr.org
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House Budget is an attack on FERS employees more so than CSRS, cuts G Fund rate, ends SRS, raises employee contributions again

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House advances 2018 budget resolution with federal retirement cuts

'...Those reforms would include: Higher employee contributions to the federal defined benefit pension plan; An elimination of supplemental payments to employees who retire before age 62; A switch to a defined contribution pension plan for new federal employees; reduce the G fund’s rate of return in the Thrift Savings Plan...'

Reference: federalnewsradio.com
Tags: destruction of the middle class, Attack on Veterans, The destruction of FERS benefits, CSRS vs FERS,

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Clinton State Department silenced them on Benghazi security lapses, contractors say

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'...Security at the State Department's Benghazi compound was so dire that another contractor was brought in to clean up the mess just two weeks before the 2012 terror attack – and was later pressured to keep quiet by a government bureaucrat under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to two men from the American security company...'

Reference: www.foxnews.com
Tags: State Department, Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, Benghazi,

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Help Hillary get richer, read her new book blaming everyone else for her loss

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New Clinton book blasts Sanders for 'lasting damage' in 2016 race

'...Clinton, in a book that will be released September 12 entitled "What Happened," said Sanders "had to resort to innuendo and impugning my character" because the two Democrats "agreed on so much." "President Obama urged me to grit my teeth and lay off Bernie as much as I could...'

Reference: www.cnn.com
Tags: Victim mentality example,

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Please do not feed the jets!

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Flight delayed by woman hurling coins at jet engine

'...passenger saw Qiu behaving strangely around their plane as they boarded -- throwing a handful of coins straight at the jet's engine. She did it, it turns out, with a little prayer for good luck, hoping to bring herself and the other passengers in for a safe landing at their destination...'

Reference: www.cbsnews.com
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With Potential 2017 Federal Job Cuts Looming, OPM Updates Furlough and RIF Guidance

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With Potential 2017 Cuts Looming, OPM Updates Furlough and RIF Guidance

'...OPM also issued new guidance on possible reductions in force, titled “Workforce Reshaping Operations Handbook.” The agency put forward the new manual to “provide assistance to agencies that are considering and/or undergoing some times of reshaping (e.g. reorganization, management directed reassignments, furlough, transfer of function, reduction in force.)” The guidance details layoff procedures under federal law and regulations...'

Reference: www.govexec.com
Tags: Federal Employee Furlough, RIF, Workforce Reshaping Operations Handbook,

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Feds: Insurance firm owners bilked postal service

'...Allan Yiv Chan and Jevelyn Viernes Chan, the owners of Sonic One Insurance Agency in Pleasanton, were named in an indictment handed up by a grand jury in San Jose. They were each charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and three counts of mail fraud. The two allegedly misused the postal service's bulk mail program between 2012 and 2016...'

Reference: www.ktvu.com
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TRUMP: Our country needs a good 'shutdown' in September!

'... The president concluded by saying the government should shut down in September to fix the "mess." "Our country needs a good 'shutdown' in September to fix mess!" he said...'

Reference: www.businessinsider.com
Tags: Government Shutdown 2017

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TSP investing: Read how a TSP investor became a millionaire the hard way. You can too!

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TSP investing: What would Einstein do?

'...Many, if not most, of the current crop of TSP millionaires did it the hard way. They didn’t bring money into government from their outside retirement accounts. They invested for decades, stuck with the C and S funds (stock indexed)...'

Reference: federalnewsradio.com
Tags: TSP, TSP Millionaire, Investing in the TSP, Tips for TSP,

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Sessions orders review of Ferguson-style police reform deals

'...The Justice Department late Monday asked a federal judge for more time to "review and assess" a proposed agreement to overhaul the Baltimore police department, saying it needed to determine how it might conflict with the crime-fighting agenda of new Attorney General Jeff Sessions...'

Reference: www.foxnews.com
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Trump wants to give federal workers a 1.9% pay raise in 2018

'...National Treasury Employees Union President Tony Reardon said in a statement that the Employment Cost Index shows growth in private industry wages of 10.4 percent on average over the last five years, compared to an overall increase of 5.4 percent for federal workers in the same period....'

Reference: postalservicenews.blogspot.com
Tags: Federal Worker Wages vs Postal Worker Wages, Employment Cost Index,

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Firing federal workers isn’t as easy as Trump makes it seem in his budget

'...Agencies also can offer incentives to entice employees to leave, creating vacancies. One way is to allow employees to retire before they are eligible. With OPM’s permission, agencies facing job cuts can allow employees to retire at any age with at least 25 years of service, or at age 50 or above with at least 20 years tenure, subject to a reduction in the annuity in some cases. The other incentive is a buyout. Agencies can offer those with OPM’s permission to reorganize, although most agencies would need authority from Congress to offer them for downsizing. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has asked his staff to review whether voluntary buyouts across the government would be a better way to shrink the workforce because they provide incentives for retirement-eligible and other...'

Reference: www.washingtonpost.com
Tags: RIF, buyouts (VSIP),

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OPM posts highest retirement claims backlog since Oct. 2015

'...At this point in fiscal 2017, OPM has processed 56 percent of its claims in 60 days or less. compared to 80 percent in February 2016. Of those claims processed within that 60-day window, it took OPM an average of 38 days to process. Claims beyond that window took an average of 104 days to process...'

Reference: federalnewsradio.com
Tags: Retirement Processing Backlog (OPM),

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Federal criminal probe being opened into WikiLeaks' publication of CIA documents

'...The investigation is looking into how the documents came into WikiLeaks' possession and whether they might have been leaked by an employee or contractor. The CIA is also trying to determine if there are other unpublished documents WikiLeaks may have...'

Reference: www.cnn.com
Tags: WikiLeaks

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Wage Stagnation and Inflation

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Nominal Wage Tracker

'...Despite the incomplete nature of the recovery, influential voices are already calling for the Federal Reserve to guard against inflation by raising interest rates to slow the economy. The stakes in this debate are high. Macroeconomic policy (including monetary policy) that prioritized very low rates of inflation over low rates of unemployment is a key reason why real wages have stagnated for the vast majority of American workers in recent decades (as we have shown through our Raising America’s Pay initiative). Widespread wage growth will not occur over the coming years if the Federal Reserve prematurely slows the recovery in the name of fighting prospective inflation...'

Reference: Economic Policy Institute
Tags: monetary policy, Federal Reserve, Macroeconomic policy, wage stagnation, Inflation, destruction of the middle class,

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Notes: Real Estate and Medical are what's driving inflation. Primarily, medical related economics are what is harming the economy the most while having the greatest impact on low and middle incomes.

Pretty easy to see which of your coworkers are full of hot air

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Remember those federal workers who were going to quit over Trump’s victory?

'...So… can we help you carry your stuff out to the parking lot? What’s that? You’re not leaving quite yet?...'

Reference: hotair.com
Tags: Wishy-Washy, Hot-air, Full of BS, Trump Haters,

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Trump vows to continue LGBT workplace rights protection

'...In a break with his party's traditional stance on gay rights, Republican U.S. President Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to uphold protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people...'

Reference: www.reuters.com
Tags: LGBT workplace rights protection

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Trump Moves to Act on Border Wall, Crack Down on Immigration

'...Trump is planning to sign directives Wednesday to set in motion construction of border reinforcement and toughening immigration enforcement within the U.S. during an afternoon visit to the Department of Homeland Security...'

Reference: www.bloomberg.com
Tags: Making America Great Again, Trump Legacy, Immigration Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security,

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Major announcement on welfare reform Monday

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Walker to unveil welfare reform plan

'...we are willing to help people who are down and out. But public assistance should be a trampoline, not a hammock...'

Reference: watchdog.org
Tags: welfare reform,

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Donald J. Trump is sworn in as 45th President of the United States of America

President Donald Trump

Article Title: Donald J. Trump is sworn in as 45th President of the United States of America
Donald J. Trump is sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America. President Trump promises to bring jobs back to America and to give the power back to the people. President Trump seeks unity in our country to once again become the greatest nation in the world. Divisions will heal and we will all enjoy the same freedoms under the same great flag and God. Our military will be the greatest and we will protect this country. American's will never be forgotten again. We will make America great again. God Bless America.

Source: federal employees
[tag] Donald Trump sworn in as President, President Donald Trump, [/tag]

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Some refunds delayed as IRS battle against fraud intensifies

'...The agency is barred from issuing refunds before Feb. 15 on any returns claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit or the Additional Child Tax Credit. Congress mandated the delay to give the IRS more time to review returns to try to catch fraudulent ones before refunds are paid out. In reality, taxpayers taking these credits will probably have to wait even longer to get their refunds — until the week of Feb. 27, the IRS says, because of weekends and the President's Day holiday...'

Reference: www.foxbusiness.com
Tags: IRS, Delay of tax refunds in 2017,

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What's Happening with Retirement

'...in the active workforce CSRS people are seen as kind of a favored sub-category, with a civil service annuity formula producing a benefit roughly double what FERS people earn, for the same years of service and the same high-3 salary level. (The Social Security component of FERS and the employer contributions to the TSP there were designed to make up the difference. Whether they do is another question, one that you can get answered by asking any FERS person whether he or she would rather have CSRS.)...'

Reference: www.fedweek.com
Tags: CSRS vs FERS, Social Security, TSP, Federal Retirement,

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The Clintons think of us as the help: 'to the Clintons, we are all valets...'

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Carr: Nation fails its moral exam

'...From WikiLeaks, we know the disdain they have for “medieval” Catholics and “needy Latinos.” We’ve long understood the Clintons’ breathtaking contempt for “the help” — Secret Service agents, the military, basically anyone in uniform. Now we’re discovering the Clintons’ supposed acolytes feel the same way about their masters. They say no man is a hero to his valet, and to the Clintons, we are all valets...'

Reference:
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Cybersecurity threat to Election Day is slim, experts say

'...Cyber security experts say the threat to Tuesday's election by some malign state actor or rogue hacker changing the actual vote count is probably slim, given that the U.S. voting system is fragmented and decentralized. The state by state, district by district and polling place by polling place network provides an inherent safeguard – one that is augmented by the fact that widely used electronic voting machines are not connected to the internet...'

Reference: www.foxnews.com
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A riigged political system and more proof of biased media as the administration attempts to hide Wikileaks damaging leaks

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Unethical Media Colluding With Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Campaign

'... Another email reveals more media collusion with Clinton campaign...As the 2016 Presidential election comes less than one month a way, new information shows that major members of the media are or have apparently colluded to help the political campaign of Hillary Clinton. Normally, the way this is should work is the media is supposed to act as an ethical, independent, watchdog to help keep government honest and transparent when there is a lack of such...

Reference: www.netadvisor.org
Tags: Rigged Political System, Biased Media,

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FBI arrests contractor in probe over stolen code used to hack other countries: NYT

'...The FBI has arrested a contractor for the National Security Agency and is probing whether he stole and disclosed highly classified computer "source code" developed to hack into the networks...'

Reference: www.reuters.com
Tags: National Security Agency (NSA), Cyber Theft,

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Trial Opens For Occupiers Of Oregon Wildlife Refuge

'...In most cases, a) there's some dispute over what actually happened, b) there might be at least some question as to sort of the legality of things that were done, and c) the defendant's goal is to be acquitted or to minimize the charges or to minimize sentencing," Sali says. "Here, most of those things are absent...they were exercising their First and Second Amendment rights...'

Reference: www.npr.org
Tags: Second Amendment rights, The First Amendment, Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Occupation/Protest,

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Obama just granted clemency to 111 federal inmates, 35 of whom had life sentences

'...caught in crossfire in Chicago and killed on Friday, it was revealed that the alleged shooters were felons on parole. That in turn prompted calls from local officials for stiffer sentencing...'

Reference: vice.com
Tags: Obama clemency initiative

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U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, auditor finds

'...The IG report also blamed DFAS, saying it too made unjustified changes to numbers. For example, two DFAS computer systems showed different values of supplies for missiles and ammunition, the report noted – but rather than solving the disparity, DFAS personnel inserted a false “correction” to make the numbers match...'

Reference: www.reuters.com
Tags: DFAS, Army, Obama Legacy, Accounting Failures,

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Guccifer 2.0 hacked DCCC

'...I wonder what happened to the true democracy, to the equal opportunities, the things we love the United States for. The big money bags are fighting for power today. They are lying constantly and don’t keep their word. The MSM are producing tons of propaganda hiding the real stuff behind it. But I do believe that people have right to know what’s going on inside the election process in fact...'

Reference: guccifer2.wordpress.com
Tags: Guccifer 2.0

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Federal Worker Retirement Pamphlets and Publications

• Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) Publications
• Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) Publications
• Retirement and Insurance Publications
• Other Retirement Publications
• Publicaciones en español
• Federal Long Term Care Insurance
• Health Benefits
• Life Insurance

Reference: www.opm.gov
Tags: Retirement Pamphlets (OPM),

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Lawmakers: 'Ransom' to Iran puts Americans at risk

'...U.S. government airlifted the equivalent of $400 million to Iran this past January – as four detained Americans were released by Tehran – and say the transaction has put more Americans at risk of being taken hostage...Obama administration denied the cash transfer was done to secure the release of the four Americans, GOP lawmakers said it was tantamount to “ransom...'

Reference: www.foxnews.com
Tags: $1.7 billion arms settlement for Iran, Does America pay ransom?, Iran, Lawmakers, Obama administration, Obama Legacy,

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House Passes Package of Reforms Aimed at Federal Agencies and Employees

'...The House of Representatives passed a package of government reform bills today that would make a number of changes impacting the federal workforce. The legislation is known as the Government Reform and Improvement Act (GRIA) (H.R. 4361) and is actually a package of past proposed bills. The package includes...'

Reference: blogs.fedsmith.com
Tags: Government Reform and Improvement Act (GRIA) (H.R. 4361)

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Seniors group warns of Social Security buying power loss

'...Social Security has already lost 23 percent of its buying power since 2000, and another potential year of no cost-of-living increase could squeeze seniors — whose expenses haven’t lowered with low inflation...'

Reference: www.benefitspro.com
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Lawmaker Demands Information on Excessive Bonuses Paid to Federal Employees

'...problems and delays at TSA. “Smurfing” is a technique that breaks specific financial transactions into something below the reporting requirement to mask them. “Hoggan’s $90,000 in bonus payments in 13 months is a clear violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the law,” wrote McCaskill in her letter to acting OPM director Beth Cobert...'

Reference: blogs.fedsmith.com
Tags: Kelly Hoggan, Smurfing,

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