By: Tom Tancredo
Kevin McCarthy wants President In Name Only (PINO) Biden to explain why so much of the federal workforce does not seem to be doing their job. He quoted statistics that showed huge backlogs in veterans claims and IRS responsiveness.
Well, Congressman, the reason that there is a problem in the administration’s “Work At Home Policy” is because the employees who are supposed to be working at home, are not working at all (shocking, isn’t it?).
The reason is sadly simple: Long before COVID work rules went into effect, federal employees who came into work were not working much, either. Sometimes, it was because there was nothing for them to do; other times, they avoided doing anything even when there was work to be done.
I know this from direct experience. You see, President Ronald Reagan appointed me in 1981 to be the Regional Representative for the U.S. Department of Education.
Of course, he wanted to shut down the Department of Education entirely, but he could not get a single Republican in Congress to introduce a bill to do so even though the monstrosity had been created only one and a half years earlier (as a payoff to the NEA for supporting Carter). So our job was to try and implode it and make it as harmless as possible.
I soon learned that our regional office had 222 people employed there, a few of whom actually worked. I had 22 on my staff alone. I thought it would be easy to reduce the numbers quickly and significantly.
WRONG! I quickly discovered that not having a definable job to do was not a reason for being declared, as the Brits say, “redundant.” Additionally, the Department of Education employees were insulated, not only by Civil Service rules but they also had a Union to protect them.
I was told that it was my job to find them something to do, but I was not deterred, though it took me a while to figure out we could get around that by using the reduced budget loophole. If I could get my budget reduced, then we could go through a Reduction In Force (RIF) process and unload a few of them at least.
Therefore, every year, I would go to D.C. and ask that my budget be reduced – an act unheard of at the time. After four years, my personal staff had been reduced by 90 percent, and the rest of the regional office staff almost as much.
Afterward, I would give a speech and say that the Region 8 staff had been reduced by about 80 percent – and then ask my audience if anyone could tell the difference. No one ever said yes. I would then add that if we went to zero, they still wouldn’t notice.
At the same time, we had several temporary government shutdowns when budget agreements could not be made. These shutdowns never lasted longer than a few days and then the Republicans would cave and everyone would get paid for any days they were furloughed.
Each time this happened, I would fax the White House (yeah, no email then!) and beg the President not to reopen so we could see just how many citizens even knew the government was closed. (Usually all “essential services” were funded; it was just “non-essential personnel” who were idled (officially at least; they were usually idle anyway).
The reason the Democrats and some big-government Republicans would cave was that they were afraid of blowing up the narrative that every part of the bloated federal government was “essential.”
On a related note, most of the federal government employment system is not geared toward helping “We the People” who it ostensibly serves but is set to serve instead as a mechanism to increase the number of people who will be reliable Democrat voters – and who produce nothing but regulations that require more people to hired to accomplish the tasks created by those regulations, and more people to enforce them.
All this being said, my message to the next Republican president is the same as it was to Ronald Reagan: SHUT THE DAMN THING DOWN!
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TRUER STATEMENT WAS NEVER MORE TO THE POINT!
Visions of ‘1984’ . All federal departments/bureaucrocies need to be shut
down and those agency responsibilities returned to the states, along with
fedl parks as the feds are not authorized by the constitution to own land
other than the capitol building and forts.
A correction is needed in the opening line. President In Name Only (PINO) Biden should be as it actually is: President In Name Only (PINO) O’Biden.
not a shock…..slodoejoe works from the basement and look what has happened! He is allowing russia and china to take over the US!
I know this to be true with Federal jobs. My late husband worked for a government agency and he would come home and tell me almost constantly that he would have one job to do that took maybe half an hour. He worked in maintenance, but it was a joke. There were 2 people. One was ready to retire and he did nothing. Also, they were not allowed to do anything unless there was a work order from management. Such a waste of taxpayer money. He would have quit but his type of work was almost nonexistent in the private sector.
I’m reminded of the race for space under J.F.K. when it was suggested that Our next rocket should be named CIVIL SERVICE—-as it would not work and you could not fire it. The United States was designed with a “small” federal government” in mind where everything (to begin with education) was to be under “local control” and not the TOP DOWN DRACONIAN MONSTER that it has become since Woodrow Wilson’s administration that saddled the country with the International Banker’s federal reserve–neither federal nor have they ever had a reserve. Gary
Agree! Long overdue!
Shut the government down!!
The Government, needs to get off their collectives asses and do their jobs. Stop suckering the American people with your inflated egos and wanting more money than what we can afford.
I did not know Tancredo ever was involved with the Department of Education but even after more than four decades, I cannot disagree with a single word or deed. Too bad he wasn’t elected because if he had been, we wouldn’t have suffered the colossal decline, putrefaction and corruption of what was touted to be the greatest education system in the world. I believed at the time and continue to believe that privatization would be the path to our needs but became another instrument of government control.
Yes!! Shut it down!
Over half of our government is full of chair warmers, who don’t actually do anything. They are just government welfare recipients. Most would not qualify for welfare assistance in any state. Look closely at long time political office holders and count the number of them who made a living at a real job before their election to office. The same ones who have been there for decades have usually not been able to survive on their own working in civilian businesses.
A good argument for a reduction in the workforce of the government! How about getting rid of some of those bureaus? Who knew folks get into those jobs and then sluff the work off? And working from home? Thus once again a notice of how our tax dollars support the lazy, the sneaky, and the likely dimwit nitwits of socialism! And I would bet the deck is stacked against anyone who really wants to work. Can’t have those pesky go getters in the government of non productive slugs.
I was told by people working in government jobs I would not like a government job because you have to go along and get along. And I have seen that even in city, county, state and federal jobs. Any one who does not comply, does not fit in, gets drummed out by peer pressure. Guess high school is in force for your entire life if you go to work in any government setting.
It seems the work ethic is really being dumbed down in this country today! And even in large businesses that is often the case as well. Like Coke! I guess they thought the shares of their business would increase with their socialist agenda. Coke of all USA businesses went WOKE! I loved Coke but it has been replaced in my fridge!
Another slip is how a good talker but not a good performer gets promoted. It often explains the sudden slant of a once well performing business that suddenly goes off on a tangent that costs them a lot for being so gullible to listen to this mesmerizing but dumb employee. Again, coke is the perfect example. What a shame because the Woke populace in the USA is NOT the majority! But stick to your guns Coke while you lose your market share! Apple might want to rethink their position as well. Competition is always somewhere on the heels of a good company! But then Microsoft has Bill Gates setting their tangent! And we won’t discuss the social media except for one comment. Do we really need Social Media? We have the internet and we have email and phones. Do we really need FB of Zuck boy who wants to Nuke the USA right to free speech?