Government of the people, by the people, for the people.
We all grew up believing this. It’s simply not true these
days.
The proof is all around us.
Secret Service agents acted to discredit Senator Chaffetz as
retaliation for investigating that agency’s misdeeds. IRS e-mails which might show criminal conduct
on the part of Lois Lerner have been conveniently “lost.” Other IRS employees have
received bonuses, even though they’ve owed back taxes themselves. Still others have been caught pulling up tax
returns of ex-spouses and celebrities for no official reason. State Department e-mails related to on-going Senate
investigations have been withheld as not relevant by the person withholding
them.
And before I forget, someone in Homeland Security altered Representative Kevin McCarthy's Wikipedia page to allude to an extramarital affair between McCarthy and another member of the House, timed to hit as he was running for Speaker.
These are all the work of government employees; the people
who are supposed to be working for us. It’s evident that they are working for
the government, and themselves, not us.
The U.S. government has become its own institution, above
the people. The millions employed in the government serve the government’s interests
– which become their own as well – at our expense. And they are essentially untouchable.
They have no fear of retribution for unlawful or unethical acts. Other government bureaucrats judge whether
they have acted properly, and, not surprisingly, most often come down on the
side of the government employees.
We the people are powerless. We can’t kick them out of
office because they aren’t elected. We can’t successfully sue them because of
governmental immunity. In many cases, we
can’t even determine precisely who is responsible because they close ranks to
protect each other.
Politics permeate everything. Democrats are loath to discuss
holding government employees accountable because government employee unions
contribute heavily to Democrats. The Republican establishment doesn’t want to
address out-of-control government employees for fear of retaliation, plus it’s
always convenient for fundraising to have a perpetual villain.
Meanwhile, the government keeps getting more intrusive. Government
employees are becoming more arrogant and abusive. They are now a privileged
class above the law increasingly separated from the general public paying their
salaries. They have accumulated enough power – through political activities and
campaign contributions, and by sheer numbers – to make bloated government
departments and agencies “too big to fail.”
If anyone dares to talk about cutting departments and
reducing headcounts by any other means than attrition, except in the military, they
are faced with ultimately increasing unemployment by hundreds of thousands. Just
think about the uproar over the temporary government “shut down” over the debt
ceiling impasse. Thousands of “non-essential” government employees didn’t get
paid on time and everybody went completely nuts.
It was a temporary event.
But the way it was reported, and demagogued by Democrats, you would have
thought we were pulling the plug on life support for crippled orphans. The relatively few government workers affected
got all their back pay in full, which was never in doubt, but the entire event
cemented the power of government workers. They all got a paid vacation; nobody
lost their jobs as a result, except for some Republican legislators.
It only showed that government employees are more entrenched
and entitled than ever before. And since government exerts more and more control
over our everyday lives, I don’t see government employees willingly giving up
the power they wield over all of us.
It’s intoxicating for many, I’m sure, to have great power
over ordinary citizens with little to no fear of ever being held accountable
for your actions, except by other unelected bureaucrats who sympathize with you.
You can thumb your nose at Congress, make up the rules as you go along, and
even if you get caught in something blatantly illegal or unethical, you can just
retire.
That’s what I’m seeing.
Unfortunately, I don’t see a simple solution.
In the private sector, you could use bankruptcy to
reorganize and invalidate or at least renegotiate union contracts in the
process. That avenue isn’t open to us
when it comes to the Federal government, although it’s a nice idea.
Too bad.
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