Sequestration..some insight

In Service Military Sealift Command
23

“I blame ALL of Congress here. Don’t forget who is the majority in the House of Representatives. The GOP. And guess where all budgetary items originate from. The House of Representatives. Write to Speaker Boehner and tell him to sober up and get something done.”

The senate has not passed a budget for years, not much the house can do. In fact Boehner is doing exactly what he should. Hold the sentate and Obama’s feet to the fire. We don’t need more tax, we need spending cuts. Want to lay blame lay it on Obama.

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[QUOTE=catherder;101544]Uh, no. Not a theory; a fact. People are being furloughed, beginning next Friday. Ships operating budgets are being chopped, deployments have been cancelled- the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman was supposed to deploy, and that deployment has been cancelled. Other deployments are being cancelled. They don’t cancel deployments based on theories and proposals. They do it because the money to pay for them isn’t there.

Shipyards have issued layoff notices. Contractors have issued layoff notices.

My company has big commodities and service contracts with MSC and MarAd. The respective contracting officers informed us that they are now officially broke. Orders are being cancelled or postponed.

I blame ALL of Congress here. Don’t forget who is the majority in the House of Representatives. The GOP. And guess where all budgetary items originate from. The House of Representatives. Write to Speaker Boehner and tell him to sober up and get something done.[/QUOTE]

The DoD is not a jobs program. It’s budget is still twice what it was in 1999 adjusted for inflation. The budget needs to be cut and allow private industry to take over.

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[QUOTE=tugsailor;101665]I hope this ploy backfires big time. Of all the absurd wasteful spending, like operation of golf courses, that could be cut, they instead cut school teachers?

The first thing that’s needed is a freeze on promotions for senior officers.[/QUOTE]

Navy sacks Kauffman’s commanding officer
Posted to: Military Norfolk Login or register to post comments

By Dianna Cahn
The Virginian-Pilot
© February 16, 2013
NORFOLK

The Navy relieved another Norfolk-based ship commander today, the latest in a stream of skippers to be fired in recent years.

A statement from Naval Surface Force Atlantic said the commander of the Norfolk-based frigate Kauffman, Cmdr. Corey Wofford, was sacked for poor performance.

The statement said Wofford’s boss, Destroyer Squadron 22 commander Capt John Fuller, relieved Wofford of his duties “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command.”

The statement was not specific but said Wofford failed “to establish a culture of procedural compliance within the command” and was unable to “correct identified deficiencies as directed.”

Wofford was replaced by Cmdr. Jennifer Couture, former executive officer of the Porter, a Norfolk-based destroyer that collided with a tanker just outside the Strait of Hormuz in August.

That ship’s captain, Cmdr. Martin Arriola, was relieved from his command later the same month.

Wofford has been reassigned to the staff of Naval Surface Force Atlantic.

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this is just wonderful…we’re broke and laying off teachers and what does the Great & Glorious US Navee go and do? ORDER MORE OVERPRICED LITTLE USELESS SHIPS THAT WE DON’T NEED!

[B]Navy awards funding for FY 2013 littoral combat ships[/B]

MARCH 4, 2013 —

The Navy has awarded funding for construction of all four of the FY 2013 littoral combat ships (LCS).

Lockheed Martin Corp., Baltimore, Md., is being provided funding in the amount of $696,629,123 under previously awarded contract (N00024-11-C-2300) for construction of two fiscal 2013 littoral combat ships. Work will be performed by shipbuilder Marinette Marine, Marinette, Wis. (56 percent); Walpole, Mass. (14 percent); Washington, D.C. (12 percent); Oldsmar, Fla. (4 percent); Beloit, Wis. (3 percent); Moorestown, N.J. (2 percent); Minneapolis, Minn. (2 percent) and various locations of less than one percent each totaling seven percent, and is expected to be complete by July 2018.

Austal USA, Mobile, Ala., is being provided funding in the amount of $681,721,789 under previously awarded contract (N00024-11-C-2301) for construction of two fiscal 2013 littoral combat ships. Work will be performed in Mobile, Ala. (51 percent); Pittsfield, Mass. (13 percent); Cincinnati, Ohio (4 percent); Baltimore, Md. (2 percent); Burlington, Vt. (2 percent); New Orleans, La. (2 percent) and various locations of less than two percent each totaling 26 percent. Work is expected to be complete by June 2018. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

NOTHING LIKE MORE WELFARE FOR LOCKHEED MARTIN AND AUSTAL USA! FUCK THIS IS SUCH BULLSHIT! SOME FUCKING SEQUESTER!

.

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No kidding I’d rather have that money go toward the carriers being stacked. What good is an aluminum can gonna do against rockets and heavy ordinance? I’m happy to see my local economy get the boost. The thing is though as long as the guvmint keeps waging war on everybody we are gonna need our carriers more than these things.

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[QUOTE=Fraqrat;101820]No kidding I’d rather have that money go toward the carriers being stacked. What good is an aluminum can gonna do against rockets and heavy ordinance? I’m happy to see my local economy get the boost. The thing is though as long as the guvmint keeps waging war on everybody we are gonna need our carriers more than these things.[/QUOTE]

Republicans are sending this one to the Dems in the Senate, now we’ll see what they do about jobs.

[B]U.S. House passes bill to restore ship repair funds[/B]

By Bill Bartel
The Virginian-Pilot
© March 6, 2013The U.S. House approved a spending bill in Washington this afternoon that would provide the Navy with money its leaders say is needed to pay for ship repairs and aircraft-carrier projects in Hampton Roads.
The measure would allow the Navy to proceed with planned work in local shipyards and avoid possible layoffs of thousands of skilled workers.
The bill, which passed the Republican-controlled House, 267-151, essentially would set the federal budget for the rest of the 2013 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. It includes additional money for the Pentagon and veterans programs but continues to fund most of the federal government at 2012 levels. It keeps intact automatic cuts that began this month.
The spending debate next shifts to the Democratic-controlled Senate, which is expected to draft its own 2013 budget resolution.
The two chambers would need to negotiate a compromise and send an approved spending bill to President Barack Obama by March 27 to avoid a shutdown of the federal government.
Congress, which has been unable to agree on a one-year budget, has been funding the government with a series of continuing resolutions. The current resolution expires March 27.
Among the new dollars in the House bill is $4.6 billion that the Navy said is needed to pay for a variety of needs including ship and aircraft maintenance and repairs.
In Hampton Roads, Navy leaders have said without the extra funds they will hold off allocating $287 million spent at local shipyards to overhaul 11 ships. Industry officials and economists said the cuts would force the region’s ship-repair industry, which employs about 40,000 people, to significantly reduce its workforce.
The bill also includes money for the overhaul of two aircraft carriers at Newport News Shipbuilding and the start of construction of a new carrier, the John F. Kennedy.
Critics of the legislation said the measure doesn’t go far enough because it continues to allow the automatic budget cuts – known as the sequester – to stay in effect. The reductions, which are part of a $1.2 trillion in cuts over 10 years, require that $85 billion be trimmed from federal spending over the next seven months. Half the cuts are in defense and half in targeted domestic programs.
The sequester, set up under legislation approved in 2011 by Congress and President Barack Obama, began after lawmakers failed to reach a compromise to find another way to cut spending or raise revenues to reduce the national deb

29

almost $350M per copy for a FUCKING patrol boat!

THESE ARE UTTERLY and COMPLETELY USELESS VESSELS!

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I was so depressed by this thread and the whole subject I wished it would die, but it looks like we’re stuck with it. Jack Lew, the new Treasury secretary, authored the damn thing…sequestration…so this really is Obama’s baby and Bob Woodward, drama aside, was right.

Anyhoo, if you want to see some more interesting and possibly useless spending, head out to Little Creek-Fort Story and see the JHSV Spearhead. I was there Monday. I don’t think I’ve seen that much aluminum in one place in my life!

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[QUOTE=seacomber;101902]Republicans are sending this one to the Dems in the Senate, now we’ll see what they do about jobs.

[B]U.S. House passes bill to restore ship repair funds[/B]

By Bill Bartel
The Virginian-Pilot
© March 6, 2013The U.S. House approved a spending bill in Washington this afternoon that would provide the Navy with money its leaders say is needed to pay for ship repairs and aircraft-carrier projects in Hampton Roads.
The measure would allow the Navy to proceed with planned work in local shipyards and avoid possible layoffs of thousands of skilled workers.

snip

[/QUOTE]

Good, we need this here. We are too dependent on defense spending in this area. I hope the local lawmakers see this as a wake-up call, but they’ve had these wake-up calls before. Like at the end of the Cold War, and other times as well.

The problem is, when you lay off large numbers of yardbirds, the better ones leave for greener pastures- the oil patch, and anywhere else they can weld, pipefit, or run cables. And the source of a lot of these workers, the US Navy, no longer really trains their people to do their own repairs so you end up with a vicious cycle of decline. When the tenders and SIMA units went away things really got bad.

I left the Navy in 1992 and walked right into a series of shipyard jobs because when I got out, I knew how to rewind motors, balance rotors, change bearings and hook up cables, troubleshoot circuits and so on, but today, those skills are rarer and rarer. Today’s Navy guys know how to push a button, as far as I can tell. I apologize in advance if I’m wrong, but from what I’m seeing in this area, I’m not far from the mark.

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[QUOTE=catherder;101944]Anyhoo, if you want to see some more interesting and possibly useless spending, head out to Little Creek-Fort Story and see the JHSV Spearhead. I was there Monday. I don’t think I’ve seen that much aluminum in one place in my life![/QUOTE]

I cannot agree more about the uselessness of those damned things…YET MORE WELFARE FOR AUSTAL USA! HOW THE HELL DID THEY GET SUCH STROKE? THEY’RE NOT EVEN AN AMERICAN COMPANY FOR CHRIST’S SAKE!

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[QUOTE=c.captain;101962]I cannot agree more about the uselessness of those damned things…YET MORE WELFARE FOR AUSTAL USA! HOW THE HELL DID THEY GET SUCH STROKE? THEY’RE NOT EVEN AN AMERICAN COMPANY FOR CHRIST’S SAKE![/QUOTE

THE MONEY, EVERYONE’S DRUNK WITH THE MONEY. Spearhead, 300 plus feet of high speed aluminum ferry boat, patrol boats for what? How would they do against a drone? And shell doesn’t use resources available. It is obvious we are witnessing a loss of common sense. And watching idiots piss money away.

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[QUOTE=“seacomber”][/QUOTE]

Amazing waste of tax payer’s money. “littoral / patrol boats” simply means the USN will run aground more as they transit with their beloved DNC charts and no paper ones.

35

From what I understand the littoral ships are replacing the Perry Class FFGs.

36

[QUOTE=c.captain;101784]this is just wonderful…we’re broke and laying off teachers and what does the Great & Glorious US Navee go and do? …

…Work will be performed by shipbuilder Marinette Marine, Marinette, Wis. (56 percent); Walpole, Mass. (14 percent); Washington, D.C. (12 percent); Oldsmar, Fla. (4 percent); Beloit, Wis. (3 percent); Moorestown, N.J. (2 percent); Minneapolis, Minn. (2 percent) and various locations of less than one percent each totaling seven percent…

…Work will be performed in Mobile, Ala. (51 percent); Pittsfield, Mass. (13 percent); Cincinnati, Ohio (4 percent); Baltimore, Md. (2 percent); Burlington, Vt. (2 percent); New Orleans, La. (2 percent) and various locations of less than two percent each totaling 26 percent…[/QUOTE]

Note how many different states and Congressional districts see a chunk of this…

37

Anybody see the segment on the news today about Camden, NJ? I lived near there years ago. The place looks like a nuclear bomb went off in it. Post-apocalyptic, abandoned buildings and streets turned to rubble. People in despair living in abject poverty. Factories moved out and blight moved in. Trenton is going that way, too, as is Detroit.

That’s the future of the rest of America if manufacturing keeps going out the window. Some days, it’s just too depressing to even talk about.

38

The other day I received an E-mail shotgunned to the whole of MSC warning us to be careful with our money during the furlough and not jeopardize our security clearances due to unpaid debts. Who thinks of these things?

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[QUOTE=c.captain;101939]almost $350M per copy for a FUCKING patrol boat!

THESE ARE UTTERLY and COMPLETELY USELESS VESSELS![/QUOTE]
They look a lot like something operated by marionettes. I like the grinder marks all along the hull. It gives them a rugged unfinished look. Like seagoing Deloreans.

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[QUOTE=Slacker;104724]They look a lot like something operated by marionettes.[/QUOTE]

Captain Littoral and the Wankers

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Best part is the Navy admirals already claim the new LCS’s are useless and underequipped. $20,000,000,000 well spent and we only have a few of them so far…

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[QUOTE=commtuna;104736]Best part is the Navy admirals already claim the new LCS’s are useless and underequipped. $20,000,000,000 well spent and we only have a few of them so far…[/QUOTE]

Which means they’ll buy “MOAR” of them natch!

Meanwhile the other agencies that really need the bucks just have to suck it up and do without.