I think that many of us believe that most government workers don't work very hard. We have all met such workers. The Deficit Commission seems to be on the same wavelength and has proposed cutting the federal staff by 10% and also freezing their salaries, which is something Mr. Obama is pushing. However, we have met these 'slow' workers in private industry as well. Yet we do not kibitz about how wasteful the activities of these people are.
Cutting the federal workforce may not be such a good thing. Clearly, those who really don't want to be in the government should not be, just as those who don't really want to be with Company X should not be.
I have written fairly often of the growth in private contractors for the military. These contractors have taken over many of the jobs soldiers used to do. So, the military claims that it is getting the job done with fewer soldiers. Other government agencies can claim that they have fewer staff but they can't easily claim that they are getting the job done. John Gravois lists some of these agencies and documents what the low staffing regimen has meant to the country; it hasn't meant good times.
One of the issues Gravois raises is the need for federal agencies to comply with the law. The law says doctors should be paid for their Medicare patients within thirty days, Social Security recipients should receive their monthly check on time. Soldiers in our three wars need to have adequate supplies delivered on time. If we cut the staff, we will not be able to meet the mandates laid out in our laws. And, in fact, we are having a fair degree of trouble meeting these mandates; hence, the rise of the private contractor in other federal agencies.
By cutting staff or freezing salaries we have wound up paying a big price. The Defense Department's procurement activities are a constant complaint of the GSA; systems are late and quite a bit over budget. The Special Inspector Generals for Iraq and Afghanistan have reported on the lack of management of private contractors in those war zones. The FBI can't build a modern computer system. The Coast Guard has no one to monitor the activities of their contractors. The Minerals Management Service could do nothing about the BP oil spill because it was understaffed in both the number and quality of staff. The SEC let companies run wild.
We need good people working for us. Arbitrarily cutting the federal workforce is not a smart thing to do.
1 comment:
I'm not sure to which particular government employees you refer when stating, "I think that many of us believe that most government workers don't work very hard. We have all met such workers." There are probably some idle ones, as there are in industry. Most government departments are run off their feet due to continuing cut-backs and staffing levels. My wife has worked for the SSA for twenty-seven years, often six days a week, ten hours a day. She still never gets caught up despite missing coffee breaks and sometimes working through the meager half hour lunchtime break.
Her salary as a claims rep is adequate, but probably less than a similarly responsible position in the private sector.
Frankly, I think the Republicans are using negative propaganda against government employees deliberately to turn the public against them. I know a few in the SSA who shouldn't be there, but those who work the least are generally the ones highest up the ladder, in management and senior management positions.
I quite agree, cutting the government workforce is not a good thing, and why should their salaries be frozen when those in the private sector are not? Their work is just as important - if seniors want their social security checks, that is.
What's wrong with this country is not the workers, whether government or otherwise, it's management (particularly senior management) that's dragged this nation into the economic abyss.
Get rid of the management dross - and start in the boardrooms.
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