This is what happens when we elect business owners. The purpose of any business is to make money for the owners. There might be side benefits, providing jobs, producing products that make people's loves better, or supporting charities, but turning the maximum amount of profit is the only real goal of any business. Anything that isn't contributing to the creation of profit is expendable. In many businesses the greatest expense is labor -- salaries and benefits, plus the employer's 50% of payroll taxes. And for many businesses the category that gets cut when profits are not what the owners think they should be is labor. This often becomes a vicious cycle where there are fewer people trying to accomplish the same goals, resulting in a drop in productivity, not to mention lower morale and greater turnover.
The Musk-directed chainsaw crew is rampaging through the government, firing large numbers of employees, often with no regard to what they do or the consequences of their work going undone. In some agencies all probationary employees are being summarily fired. They are easy targets since they lack the civil service protections that typically kick in after six months. If a careful review and analysis of each employee had been done and decisions on termination been made with regard to whether they were doing the job they were hired to do, or even whether the position itself was in line with the agencies mission, that would be understandable. What they are doing is just firing a lot of people because, according to the usual "businessman" math, that's where you save money. In many instances, at the IRS and Social Security Administration for example, the core responsibilities still have to be carried out, just with half the people.
The other half of the equation is the elimination or reduction of agencies that Trump and Musk simply don't like. Every agency, and the budget for every agency, and its overall mission, has been set in place by a process that is constitutionally mandated. It's established by law. A president, as the head of the executive branch can set priorities and tweak the mission around the edges, but a president does not have the authority to unilaterally dismantle an agency or department or simply refuse to spend Congressionally allocated funds. The argument that is being made is that the whole mission of some agencies is wasteful. USAID is one example. There are some who are of the opinion that any tax dollars that are being spent in other countries is by definition wasteful, and that therefore eliminating that spending is targeting waste. That's a legitimate argument (albeit one that I disagree with), but it should be hashed out in budget negotiations. The president can make his case in his budget proposal and lobby members of Congress and if he prevails, the budget is cut or the agency shuttered. The position that because a lawfully constituted department of government is distasteful to a faction of the electorate doesn't make it inherently wasteful.
What about fraud and corruption? Surely those are legitimate targets? I can't argue with the elimination of fraud and corruption. But wouldn't an administration that has no qualms about making unsupported allegations about its opponents be eager to gleefully perp walk legitimately corrupt officials before the cameras and brag about it? So far, not one. And all the fraud uncovered by Musk has turned out to be easily explained data points that he and his team failed to understand. Now he's leaving to go back to his sinking car company, with savings he's claimed at around 7% of what he promised he's find. Even that has been exposed as wildly inflated. Inspector Generals of the various departments, among their other responsibilities, are tasked with investigating fraud and corruption, but most of them were fired during Trump's first week in office -- what does that tell you about how serious this whole charade is?
Trump has unleashed an unqualified team, ignorant of government functions, to chaotically gut government operations. They have no experience in government, no background in forensic accounting, and no understanding of the downstream consequences of their actions. Their mission is unconstitutional and their delegation of authority illegal.
But the government isn't "woke" anymore and the Pentagon is full of warriors now, so I guess it's alright.
No comments:
Post a Comment