# The federal government made a serious mistake by caving in to Cliven Bundy **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 13, 2014, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-federal-government-made-a-serious-mistake-by-caving-in-to-cliven-bundy/685993 "2014-04-13T05:03:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 31
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-federal-government-made-a-serious-mistake-by-caving-in-to-cliven-bundy/685993/601 "2016-01-19T17:18:48Z")
I think I’m going to send a dildo to those Oregon guys 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-federal-government-made-a-serious-mistake-by-caving-in-to-cliven-bundy/685993/602 "2016-01-19T18:21:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Cost to the Federal Taxpayer: $23,400 Per Day > > Along with the occupied Malheur National Wildlife Refuge facility, three buildings maintained by the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service have also shut down because of the security threat to employees. The Bureau of Land Management’s district office in Burns, Oregon alone employs nearly 120 employees — most of whom are now on paid administrative leave. The weekly cost of those workers — who now are unable to work — is about $117,000 per week, or $23,400 per day. > > Not included in this cost are the 50 additional employees at at the refuge center or the Forest Service’s Emigrant Creek Ranger District office. Many of these workers are also on paid leave, which means the actual cost may be even greater. How does being on leave cost more than if they were just at work? ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-federal-government-made-a-serious-mistake-by-caving-in-to-cliven-bundy/685993/603 "2016-01-19T19:18:23Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > How does being on leave cost more than if they were just at work? Because you are paying for nothing rather than getting work done. I guess if you think they were just in there jacking off all day then there’s no cost to it. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-federal-government-made-a-serious-mistake-by-caving-in-to-cliven-bundy/685993/604 "2016-01-19T20:21:19Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Because you are paying for nothing rather than getting work done. I guess if you think they were just in there jacking off all day then there’s no cost to it. yeah, but it doesn’t cost MORE, it costs the same. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-federal-government-made-a-serious-mistake-by-caving-in-to-cliven-bundy/685993/605 "2016-01-20T00:09:17Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > yeah, but it doesn’t cost MORE, it costs the same. The work they would be doing is not being done. Presumably, the work itself is worth $23,400 per day. Not being able to complete it means they are losing that amount which has to be made up later. Think about it, papers need filing, phones need answering, contracts need monitoring, the land needs preserving, buildings, trees, wildlife, etc. need to be studied, monitored, researched. Those things will be done later, at extra cost, or they will not be done at all, meaning we lose that amount that we would have benefitted from. Either way, the taxpayers are not getting what we would be paying for. I get what you mean, we pay them the same no matter what. But the output is not the same. We lose that amount in productivity [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-federal-government-made-a-serious-mistake-by-caving-in-to-cliven-bundy/685993.md?page=30)