Furlough Facts & Figures

With federal workers averaging $108,500/year in salary and benefits, if all 820,000 furloughed federal workers never came back, the total savings to the Treasury would be $90 billion/year. In a budget of roughly $3.5 trillion, that's just 2.6% of all spending. Even as a percentage of the $642 billion FY13 deficit, a reduction of $90 billion is just 14%! Entitlement reform, and nowhere else, is where savings will be found.

- Elliot F. Eisenberg, Ph.D.