Okay, we're starting to get some good tips to help us flesh out Rudy's new promise that he'll replace only 50% of federal workers slated to retire over the next decade.

TPM Reader JR points us to this article in Government Executive magazine that notes that ...

The government faces a potential wave of exits over the next decade as about 60 percent of federal workers overall and 90 percent of senior executives become eligible for retirement.

Now, I've never been much of a math wiz. But half of 60% is I think 30%. So Rudy seems to be saying he'll cut the federal workforce by about 1/3, which sounds like it would likely have some pretty serious consequences.

Meanwhile, another recent study says that over the next two years alone the federal government plans to hire 193,000 new workers for "mission-critical" jobs. And about 1/3 of those are in "security, protection, compliance and enforcement."

The study also notes that most of those new hires are for the Department of Homeland Security for stuff like customs enforcement, border security and immigration enforcement. Presumably he's willing to gut those enforcement responsibilities.