In an anonymous op-ed for The Daily Caller, someone claiming to be a “senior Trump official” who is “working without a paycheck” came out in staunch support of the president’s continuing strategy of keeping the partial government shutdown in place while he waits for majority Democrats in the House to negotiate a deal with him that includes funding for his border wall.
But the official is not writing in support of the president’s policy per se. He/she has another motivation: To strip the government of dead weight, saving taxpayers billions in payroll and regulatory costs, while paring down government to a more manageable, functional, responsive entity.
“As one of the senior officials working without a paycheck, a few words of advice for the president’s next move at shuttered government agencies: lock the doors, sell the furniture, and cut them down,” the official writes.
“Federal employees are starting to feel the strain of the shutdown. I am one of them. But for the sake of our nation, I hope it lasts a very long time, till the government is changed and can never return to its previous form,” the official noted further.
On any given day, the official continued, “roughly 15 percent” of workers he/she comes in contact with are very good, very conscientious, and patriotic servants of We the People who deserve larger salaries for the great work they perform.
But “80 percent” of the rest lack motivation and work ethic and are under “no pressure” whatsoever to be productive on behalf of the country and its people. The official notes that if the vast majority of federal workers he/she sees daily don’t want to do what they’re told, they don’t — and because of federal employment rules it’s virtually impossible to get rid of them.
“They avoid attention, plan their weekend, schedule vacation, their second job, their next position — some do this in the same position for more than a decade,” the official writes in what is, no doubt, a scathing indictment of fat, bloated big government.
These federal employees, the official notes, don’t really do anything that would warrant their firing, but they aren’t doing anything of value, either. They coast through days “administering, refining, following and collaborating on process,” the official wrote.
Worse, the bureaucracy is stifling as well. Before even basic, inconsequential things can be accomplished they must first be signed off on by a plethora of low-to-mid-ranking officials, agencies, and “work units.”
This is POTUS Trump’s big opportunity
“Process is what we serve, process keeps us safe, process is our core value,” the official wrote. “It takes a lot of people to maintain the process. Process provides jobs.”
What’s more, this process is so intensive that even low-level staffers can obstruct a president’s policy initiatives by bogging it down or simply ignoring it. There are even “process experts and certified process managers who protect the process,” the official writes. (Related: GOP Rep Dan Crenshaw says he can’t accept pay during shutdown ‘in good conscience.’)
Employees cannot even be held liable for poor performances. They respond with “threats, lawsuits, complaints and process” that takes years to adjudicate. In the end, most are paid off or promoted, while bad reviews are waived.
Worse, “most of my career colleagues actively work against the president’s agenda,” notes the official, adding that he/she spent 15 percent of each day working to enact POTUS’ policies and “85 percent…trying to stop sabotage — and we have no power to get rid of” these employees.
That is until the shutdown occurred. Now, the official notes, several federal agencies are operating much more efficiently because they have “a fraction” of their previous workforces.
“But President Trump can end this abuse. Senior officials can reprioritize during an extended shutdown, focus on valuable results and weed out the saboteurs,” the official wrote. “We do not want most employees to return because we are working better without them.”
Read more about the corruption of the DC bureaucracy and swamp at Corruption.news.
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