WHO MAKES UP THE DEEP STATE?

Jeffrey Tucker recently focused his writing on the biggest challenge in reforming Washington; the administrative branch. It is incredibly difficult to change personnel in this area. There are too many offices, too many people and labor contracts that prevent change, even as many are entrenched in political beliefs that don’t align with or are frankly hostile to the existing administration. And worse, many are incompetent or lazy.

Imagine that you come into a company as a new manager. On your first day, you are told that your employees aren’t great. They goof off, ignore customers, leave early, etc. Some hate your administration and vow to keep you from accomplishing your goals. However, you have to make it work. You can’t replace them. This would never happen in the private sector (except where unions rear their ugly heads). And, even if it does, the company may not survive. But it is the way things work in the government, federal, state and local.

Personnel Management is Critical

If you are in charge and you can’t do anything with the people under you, how can you succeed? You can only manage if the people are dedicated and don’t really need management. Once they know that their jobs are guaranteed, many will cease to put in the effort. And if a few start “quiet-quitting,” everyone will. Who wants to pick up the slack for everyone else?

Management has to have the ability to select, promote, discipline and fire employees.

The Administrative State v. the President

Over 3 million people work for the federal government, most of them part of the Executive branch, which the President controls. Or does he?

We didn’t even have career civil service personnel before 1883. For quite a while after that, no one challenged the right of the President to hire and fire who he liked. This impacted the ability of someone to make a career out of their job, unless they did a good job and pleased the current administration. But despite the pleas of President Roosevelt, federal employees were allowed to unionize and create legal bars to stop the president from taking action.

We’ve seen this with President Trump in both his terms. Despite clear malfeasance (and in many cases, inability to do their jobs), federal employees run to the court and often, get their jobs back based solely on these contracts and historical precedence that their jobs are somehow different than anyone else’s. And it isn’t just the problem for the President. Imagine all the managers of the various offices. They can’t do anything about incompetent or lazy employees either. Thus, they try to hire more people to actually get the job done which costs all of us more money. And let’s not even start on the benefits especially lush retirements most of us can only dream about.

I had personal experience with the incompetence when we tried to renew my husband’s passport. There were some issues, but it took 2-3x as long to manage during Covid. The excuse was that they were working from home, but most of the work was on a computer. Why did it take longer? Were people perhaps just goofing off since they had the luxury of working from home? Others saw the same excuses from other agencies. Teachers put in very short days, depriving kids of their education. No one in the private sector had the ability to use Covid as an excuse for incompetence.

Trump has decided to defy years of administrative state inertia. The Supreme Court is now examining the Constitution and has to find that Trump is right; he manages the Executive Branch and has the right to fire/reclassify people, especially those in the security sector.

It’s Our Money

Aren’t you tired of seeing so many people do so little while being paid high salaries and big pensions with your money? I am. As taxpayers, we should have some say in how our money is being spent. Too often, politicians ignore the people who elected them, but those in the administrative state are the worst. They can undermine the President in ways no one else can.

We delegate responsibility to our elected officials, but if they do not have the right to select candidates and fire at will, they have no power. This is not what our country was founded on, and it’s certainly not the intent in the Constitution.

To some, it may be odd to focus on personnel as a critical issue in our politics, but it is. If the Supreme Court decides correctly, we should see a vast shrinkage in the ranks of the civil service and a focus on performance in those who are left. The other benefit will be making civil service more attractive to the competent, as it is very hard to feel good about work when others around you complain you are working too hard. We could get by with fewer, but better people in all departments, saving us money and accomplishing more. The private sector has lessons the government needs to learn.