Time For A Change – Make Govt. Employees Accountable

Posted on August 9, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard 4

photo courtesy WesternJournalism.com

If you got caught spending most of your time at work watching porn on your computer, do you think you might get fired? If you owed money to your employer and refused to pay it, would you expect to keep your job?

If you are a federal employee, no worries. Less than one-half of one percent get fired. Congressman Mark Meadows (R-NC) said, “It’s so laborious for managers to address poor performers that sometimes it’s easier for them to ignore the bad employee or give suspension with pay and hope that it corrects itself.”

With the average annual pay for federal jobs approaching $100k, plus fat benefits packages and generous time off, taxpayers should expect top-notch performance. But we all know that, for the most part, federal departments and agencies are the gold standard for ineptitude and inefficiency. Because government employee unions bubble-wrap their members, our government must hire several people for every job that would require only a single worker in the real world.

Unlike jobs in the private sector, where every employee must contribute to profit or hit the highway, nobody other than Congressman Meadows seems to care about the buildings full of bodies accomplishing little or nothing. The agency and department heads are not concerned; it’s not their money! Plus, the measure of success and power in government is not what you accomplish, or how much money you save the taxpayers – it’s how many employees you accumulate.

And the head bureaucrats are as unaccountable as the line employees. When called to task by congressional oversight committees for poor performance, or even illegal acts, they no longer feel compelled to even answer questions. They know that their bread is buttered by the administration, not Congress. Who is in charge? Nobody. The buck stops nowhere.

At a time when our economy can no longer drag the dead weight of bloated government behind it, and our $20 trillion debt keeps rocketing, and there really is serious work that our employees should be doing, can’t somebody – maybe a presidential candidate for instance – at least mention government accountability?

The Heritage Foundation has studied the issue and made recommendations as part of its “Blueprint for Reform – A Comprehensive Policy Agenda for a New Administration in 2017“. Among many important reform policies, this ambitious project addresses the pay and benefits gaps between federal and private sector employees, and suggests some ways to make firing bad employees at least thinkable, if still not easy (see pages 99 – 102).

I’d like to see employee unions either shut down or severely restricted. The federal government is a monopoly, where the elected can spend taxpayer money to get themselves re-elected. Government employees should at least be hired at-will, just as they are in the private sector, so managers can hire, discipline, and fire without facing union intervention or a morass of federal regulations. And department officials must be made accountable to Congress too, or the notion of congressional “oversight” is no more than a shallow joke.

Like any rehab program, the first thing we have to do is admit that we have a problem. Then we have to work on some serious change in accountability.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

A change . . .
Would do you good.
I said a change . . .
Would do you good!

A Change Would Do You Good – Sheryl Crow

A Conservative Thankful for . . . Government Employees?

Posted on November 28, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

Thankful Turkey Yes, I am a conservative, and on this Thanksgiving holiday I’m thankful for government employees.

Now, before you choke on your turkey giblet stuffing – let me explain. There are many things that government does extremely well. When I turn the tap at my sink, I get clean, safe water every time. And the cost of it is pretty darned reasonable. My garbage gets picked up right on time. The stop lights work, our streets and highways are pretty good, and if there is an emergency the fire, police and EMS/rescue guys are top notch.

I generally don’t worry about our country being pushed around by other nations because our military is still the biggest, baddest dawg in the junkyard.

We need good government employees and the services they provide that we just can’t do as individuals. I believe for the most part our local and state governments do what is expected of them and at a cost we can manage. I just wish the same were true of the federal government.

It’s not that the federal government doesn’t do enough for us. Quite the contrary, it does way the hell too much.

Most Americans don’t understand that our Constitution limits the authority of the federal government to a fairly short list of “enumerated powers“. The first item in the list says:

The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States

The remaining items on the list mostly refer to national defense, currency, and post offices. And anything not specifically on that list, according to the Tenth Amendment, is strictly off-limits to the feds.

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

There is nothing in the enumerated powers that allows the federal government to redistribute income or to compensate anyone for financial loss or misfortune. You won’t find any reference to endangered species, or global warming. Nothing there about foreign aid. No mention of education. The feds aren’t authorized to provide bailouts of private companies, banks, or mortgage-holders. They aren’t supposed to be buying up private land and property.

In fact, most of what our federal government does is not authorized by the Constitution. Maybe that’s why our current administration — cheered on by the media, academia, and a good portion of our nation’s under-educated and disengaged citizens — doesn’t feel it should be restricted by Constitutional law.

Sometimes we conservatives are mischaracterized as “anti-government” zealots. Contrary to liberal claims, we don’t want our children to drink dirty water, our disabled to die in poverty on the streets, or our grandmas to be pushed over a cliff when they pass the age of usefulness.

Just the same, we aren’t pleased when our federal government takes our hard-earned money – our property – by force and gives it to another person, company, or nation for motives we don’t support, and purposes that are not constitutional. And we wonder how awesome life in America would be if our federal government was the lean, mean machine the framers of our Constitution intended – protecting the borders, providing national defense, and doing only what it is supposed to – without the incredible waste of resources and failed social experimentation that holds us back.

It’s true we are abused by a growing number of (mostly federal) unaccountable bureaucrats who never answer the phone. But most of our government employees are just out there doing the honorable work of the People, and they deserve a thank-you.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

You didn’t have to love me like you did
But you did, but you did – and I thank you
You didn’t have to hold me like you did
But you did, but you did – and I thank you

I Thank You – Billy Gibbons and Daryl Hall

Government Employees: Join Us Conservatives!

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 1

This message is for government employees.

I know most of you are thoughtful people who care about your families and their futures. You want our nation to be a better place for your children and grandchildren, and you want to be justifiably proud of our nation again.

As our economy has deteriorated, you have been increasingly cursed by conservatives. You may feel isolated and threatened. Since your paycheck comes from the taxpayers you can’t respond in public to the punches thrown your way.

It’s time for us to have a little talk – please stick with me to the end of this post.

I am a fiscal conservative. No shame, no hesitancy, no reservations. Our federal government, and many state and local governments, have been spending a lot more money than they have taken in for a long time, and this can not continue without devastating results. I know you understand this basic fact of life. At $17 trillion dollars and growing, our national debt is epic.

Still, there are grown adults who will not admit that we can not consume more than we produce. I doubt that the “grasshopper and ant” story is still shared with elementary students, but its lesson about industry and thrift, and the importance of saving for the future is no less true today than it was when our great-grandparents learned it.

A few selfish Americans only want to take, and never give. Aside from that, the only justification I have heard for government overspending is a misguided belief in Keynesian economics. It has never worked in the long-term, and we are living the proof of that right now. We are at the end of the line.

Liberals (and especially the corrupt mainstream media) continue to paint conservatives as stingy, cold-hearted, wild-eyed wing-nuts who don’t care about underdogs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of us are, or were, underdogs. Conservatives want a better world for all, and have learned from history what makes that happen. We know that nothing in life worth having is free.

Because I am a critic of government overspending, and because most tax dollars go to salaries, I complain a lot – and loudly – about government employees. Let me clarify that.

I don’t hate government employees. The people, I mean. You are American citizens who raise your families, support churches and charities, go to work and do your best. Many of you are extraordinarily brave, intelligent, and productive. Many of you are consummate patriots and put up with a lot of nonsense that most of us would not tolerate.

The problem is our government has outgrown our ability to control it. There are too many government jobs, many involving work that the framers of our constitution never intended. Some programs are obsolete, redundant, frivolous, or over-reaching.

Honestly, some government employees have little or nothing constructive to do – not because they are lazy, but because the “system” in which they operate has become dysfunctional. Corruption in government has grown to epidemic proportions due to the high cost of getting elected, and the profit potential. As a result, you government employees are forced to do things that you know are not right, and there are some bad actors in lead positions of your agencies and departments. Also, some of you have been steered by corrupt union leadership that does not always operate in your best interests.

Lately I am hearing from more and more of you honest, concerned government employees who “get it”. You understand the true state of the union and the extent of the danger, but you may feel you can’t stand up and speak out against the excesses and failures of your employer.

I’m here to wish you courage and strength, and invite you to the “Right Side”. Please join us. You can be a major contributor to restoring the fiscal integrity of our great nation. Support your conservative friends and neighbors. Teach your children. Do what you can to cut waste and corruption. It’s your home too, and your family’s future is much brighter in a free, strong and prosperous economy than in a corrupt, state-controlled society where the top priority is a perceived “fairness” that will ultimately require everyone to be equally miserable.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

People, when things go wrong, as they sometimes will
And the road you travel, it stays all uphill
Let’s work together
Come on, come on, let’s work together
You know together we will stand
Every boy, girl, woman and man

Let’s Work Together – Canned Heat