FIRE THE FED

The Administrative State is Just Too Big

Proof Point

If you tried to renew your passport in 2020, as we had to do, you found it could take three to four months (or longer).  Every single person working for State still had a job, had an internet connection and was supposed to do their job…but they couldn’t get it done.  Covid was the excuse.  Now, we see the same thing repeating.  Try and get a passport or a renewal now. 

Biden wants us to believe that we need more people in the administrative state, which is why he funded the hiring of 87,000 more IRS agents.  The IRS already has 78,000 employees; why do they need double the number?  It’s all about power and spending our money.  When the government steals our money, they not only gain power.  They take our freedom away.

Time to Downsize

Having been through many downsizings (and a victim of two), I know that the methodology is usually flawed.  A common tactic is to force every department to shed x% of their employees.  The first thing that happens is that middle management protects their own and tries to get rid of the front line, the people who actually get stuff done.  The survivors are expected to pick up the slack, with no help from management.  This always fails.  It doesn’t reap the rewards they hope for in terms of increased revenue, customer base, customer satisfaction or even, decreased costs.

A better way is to cut the budget.  Imagine if selected departments (State, Treasury, Commerce, Education, Housing and Urban Development, etc.) were required to cut a percentage of their budget.  Or get more granular (IRS, FBI, EPA, CIA, etc.)  Now it makes more sense to fire the more expensive people who don’t actually accomplish anything.  Management.  But if you make the cuts deep enough, you also can cripple their ability to intrude on our freedoms.  No more wetland experts defining a short-term puddle as a protected watershed.  No more IRS agents going after the middle class (or lower middle class) striving mostly to harass us for small errors in our returns.

Our federal government is simply too large.  We have more than 2.1 MM federal employees, all very well paid, with great benefits and large pensions.  In the past, government employment paid poorly, but you had a small pension guarantee as well as a protected job.  Then, government unions came into play, bringing the costs even higher than in the civilian world, where employees have to contribute to the success of the business or lose their jobs.  (See Yellow Co., formerly Yellow Freight.  Union demands forced the company into bankruptcy, costing 22,000 people their jobs).  That’s what’s supposed to happen when unions get greedy.

We need to severely downsize the federal government.  I’d suggest cutting the most useless areas by 50%, but let’s start at 10%.  Would this impact the delivery of services?  Yes, in a good way. Fearful about losing their jobs, many people would get moving and deliver quality service.  We’d have fewer management levels and decisions would be made more quickly.  There would be less make-work, a concept invented by government employees to justify their existence and their bloated salaries.

Sure, you’d have to get rid of the job guarantees, but that should have gone by the wayside years ago.  And, get rid of pensions.  Buy out those who are close to retirement and for the rest, 401Ks.  It’s good enough for us, isn’t it?  Or is it?  Not so much, given how they are taxed and you are forced to take them on a schedule.  But they should be on the same plan as the rest of us.

Teachers in “rubber rooms,” the ones so awful they can’t pretend to teach anymore?  Fire them.  It’s time to clear the books and cut the budget severely.  This should go all the way to the West Wing and the President.  In reality, the First Lady may need a secretary, but not a large staff.  She doesn’t do anything.  (Or he doesn’t, in the case of Harris).

While we’re at it, let’s get rid of a lot of the security enjoyed by those in power.  After all, since Biden doesn’t respect the 2^nd Amendment, why should he have armed staff?  Think of the savings.  It would be time for a massive tax cut as well. 

Tough on People?

Sure.  I remember being cut from my job, even as I had been a top performer.  You get your resume out and start looking again.  You may find that in the real world, you have to put in a solid week of work (and then some) and be accountable, but that’s a good thing.  There’s an army of career coaches out there to help you (including me), and our fees are reasonable. 

I await any candidate to stump on this plank.  The original government was very tiny and this was appropriate, as the Constitution doesn’t make provision for our federal government to do all that much.  Since they do most things poorly, let’s just chop and dice, making sure to take out a lot of paper-shuffling managers.  Imagine the fun!