Trump just blew up federal civil service rules that made it nearly impossible for taxpayers to get rid of lousy government workers

05/30/2018 / By JD Heyes / Comments

President Donald Trump continues to “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C., which is the real reason why nearly everyone in the nation’s capital wishes he would have never beaten the most criminally corrupt candidate ever nominated by the Democratic Party.

On Friday the president blew up existing civil service rules with a trio of executive orders aimed at cracking down on lousy federal employees whose primary objective is to do as little as possible while getting paid as much as possible, compliments of the U.S. taxpayer.

As reported by The Washington Times, POTUS Trump is taking aim at poor on-the-job performance and misbehavior throughout the federal workforce, according to senior administration officials. 

The paper reported:

Mr. Trump signed a trio of executive orders that reform civil service rules by expediting termination for cause, revamping union contracts and limiting taxpayer-funded union work at agencies, said a senior administration official.

“Today the president is fulfilling his promise to promote more efficient government by reforming civil service rules,” Andrew P. Bermberg, director of the White House Office of Domestic Policy Council, told the Times.

At the heart of Trump’s effort is a plan to institute “merit system principles” — retaining and promoting federal employees based on job performance, not favoritism or political patronage which is how the federal bureaucracy currently operates.

“These executive orders will make it easier for agencies to remove poor-performing employees and make sure taxpayer dollars are more efficiently used,” Bermberg added, the Times reported.

Some are already predicting loud and obnoxious objections from federal employee unions — which even long-serving Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said should never exist because any effort by government workers to strike would be an affront to taxpayers, something he said was “unthinkable and intolerable.” (Related: Gingrich: ‘Trump will be reelected because he’s keeping his promises’ and ‘changing America’s future’.)

Outrageous rules keep bad workers on the job

But that’s part and parcel of what’s wrong with federal civil service today, as noted by James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation. Writing in The New York Times in July 2014 he said:

Government collective bargaining means voters do not have the final say on public policy. Instead their elected representatives must negotiate spending and policy decisions with unions. That is not exactly democratic – a fact that unions once recognized.

But scream though they will, a senior administration official told the Washington Times that the move is designed to give taxpayers a much better deal while at the same time creating a far better work environment for “thousands of employees who come to work each day and do a great job.”

And who nevertheless have to work around or — worse, under — backstabbing, lazy, self-important, and self-serving people who should have been fired months or years ago.

Trump is not only acting on a campaign promise but also on longstanding complaints about “dead wood” in federal agencies. The administration offered some information regarding the need for the president’s reforms:

— Data from the Office of Personnel Management shows that federal employees are 44 times less likely to be dismissed from their jobs than a similar private sector worker after completing a probationary period. And federal workers know that, which gives bad ones little incentive to improve.

— The Government Accountability Office said in a recent report that it can take six months to a year to actually fire a federal employee for bad on-the-job performances — and even then such actions are followed by an eight-month appeals process.

That alone is reason enough to reform the system.

Our billionaire businessman president continues to fulfill campaign pledges to dramatically reform the way Washington does business — and is viewed by the general public in “fly-over country.” 

It’s one of many reasons why he’ll sail to reelection in 2020.

Read more about President Trump’s draining of the D.C. swamp at Trump.news and WhiteHouse.news.

J.D. Heyes is also editor-in-chief of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

WashingtonTimes.com

InvasionUSA.news

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bad employees, big government, campaign promise, civil service, executive orders, government workers, keeping promises, merit system, politics, President Donald Trump, rule changes, taxpayers

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