All government is local.. even in DC.  Wow, furloughing nearly a million civilian workers when the Feds have all those contracts they could simply end, and antiquated weapons systems they could cancel, or God forbid, undeclared wars against for oil and drugs across the planet they could home from!  But no, threaten the Pentagon and its congressional lackeys and their defense industrial sponsors with a measly 9% cut of planned FUTURE (increased) spending and you get the local Board of Supervisor solution — sorry folks, cut our budget and we’ll lay off the firefighters and emergency staff first.  Not that these potentially furloughed civilian employees constitute the emergency staff in the military, or even much that is truly necessary for constitutionally required defense.  In fact, we might innocently believe that these civilian employees ACTUALLY WERE the least important functions of the DoD and THAT’s why they are being furloughed in the face of this proposed (minimal) belt tightening.   There is no argument that these civilians are critical to the well-being of the Beltway, (and once furloughed, imagine the protests in DC they can participate in!).  Frankly, it is brilliant and disgusting and strangely patriotic all at the same time.  I mean, shouldn’t these patriots be delighted to give up their less-than-necessary jobs (as determined by their public servant bosses) in the face of national bankruptcy and federal default?  Here’s my suggestion:   Furlough and fire them top down, starting with the SES level and flag officers and work your way down to 800,000.  Then stop and see how it’s working.   What a treat for the whole country that would be!

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