Is this any way to economize?

The Bean Counter People are very much in charge. You know, the people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Veteran forecasters cut under budget proposal

Amid one of the busiest hurricane periods in decades, the National Weather Service has drafted a plan to offer early retirement to 1,000 employees, including dozens of veteran workers in Florida.

As part of a cost-cutting move, the agency wants to replace 68 high-paid employees in the state, many of them forecasters, and either cut the positions or replace them with junior staff.

Thirteen of the 42 staff members at the National Hurricane Center in Miami would qualify for the early retirement.

With Florida still recovering from eight hurricanes in two years, and another busy season predicted, the proposal makes some people nervous.

But we have to pay for that big federal drug benefit that no one understands and few seniors actually wanted.

And we have to build Ted Stevens bridge to nowhere in Alaska.