Strolling the halls of Washington, D.C., these last few years while fighting to protect our pensions has taught me much. While dealing with the bureaucrats I have found dedicated public servants who have given their lives to serving others. Over the last few years, though, I have observed a very upsetting trend of a concerted effort to get rid of thousands of these dedicated people who have formed the backbone of the government, especially during times of transition.
Many of these top notch people took jobs within the government because of a need to serve the better good, even though they could do much better financially in private industry.
These are the people being called the "Deep State." These are people earning 5-figure to low 6-figure salaries. True patriots in my book.
With the current threat of losing pensions or positions, partially because of the attacks on federal unions, thousands have tendered their resignations, many others fired simply because they were hired under the previous administration. I consider them a brain trust that benefit our country greatly.
With this forced downsizing of the federal government, many agencies are now operating in a near skeletal mode. In our latest trip to the Treasury Department to meet with Sec. Steve Mnuchin, I was amazed that the building seemed empty, compared to an earlier visit. I asked our guide about this, and she remarked that they were very short people and concerned.
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Sadly, we are now starting to see and understand what is really happening. Many of the positions went unfilled, while others are being outsourced to private business under federal contract. This has resulted in slow response time and lack of federal enforcement. In one grisly example, take the case of the Federal Aviation Authority. Safety enforcement and controls left up to the manufacturer are to blame for crashes of the Boeing 737 Max.
With the Food and Drug Administration now being run by a former chief executive of a chemical company, there has been a relaxation of chemical controls, a rash of food product recalls, and a pharmaceutical industry out of control.
The Education Department is no different. With a business leader now in control, we are noticing a shift of funding away from public education.
Independent government scientists are being muzzled by their business bosses as we have recently seen with the National Weather Service and Hurricane Dorian's path.
I personally find this current federal trajectory a little frightening, with much of the independence that was a hallmark of the differing agencies being ripped away and replaced with a business model that has trouble understanding that their primary focus is to be protectors of the people through enforcement and safety.
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If the Trump administration has a domestic policy doctrine at this point, it could be described as the following practice: the appointment of industry insiders to Cabinet-level positions in order to deregulate or otherwise surgically dismantle the protections of a given department.
Of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation does have a nice ring to it.
