The Party of Bloat

Say, which political party is it that believes in limited government again? Couldn’t be the GOP now, could it? I think perhaps a long time ago this was so, but today they are just an embarrassing bureaucracy blob that shifts wherever the donor winds tell them too, completely unchained from any principle except self benefit.

This was made abundantly clear after 21 House Republicans  threw a hissy fit over President Trump’s recently signed executive orders  that make it easier to fire poorly performing federal workers and saves taxpayer dollars from going to union related activities.

Earth to Republicans, our government is too big, bloated and inefficient and no longer works in the best interest of Americans.  Reforms need to be made and an obvious start would be to get rid of employees who just are not, and probably never have been, cutting the mustard in taxpayer funded jobs.  An immediate cut off of tax payer dollars to unions is needed too, but this is probably too much to ask for, so let’s start with the minimal reductions outlined on the EO’s.

Oh the Congressmen claim of course to be concerned the new orders mess with “the longstanding federal labor statutes that protect America’s civil service from discrimination, unfair treatment and sexual harassment,” so let’s take a look at what they actually mean.

• • • The first one makes it easier to fire a bad worker by reducing the Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs)  process, which is a last ditch chance for federal workers flagged for removal to improve themselves.  This timeframe can run between 60 and 120 days, but the EO makes it a flat 30 day government wide mandate. Imagine, the horror of having only 30 days to convince your manager not to fire you!   Pardon me while I reach for my tiny violin. Most of us in the private sector get 0 days warning, 30 would be a luxury.

     

    • The next one tightens up how government funds are spent by limiting the amount of time federal employees can be paid doing union work while on the government clock.  Wait, we currently allow taxpayer money for this?  Please, this EO is long overdue and even then it doesn’t go far enough with its 25% cutoff time.

     

    • The third one reduces the window of time for labor contract bargaining between government and the unions and requires those contracts to be posted on line to promote transparency.  Again nothing shocking here.  With the federal government having paid $16 million in salaries for union negotiators in 2016 this EO is a no brainer.

     

  The Government Accountability Office reports that it takes between six months and a year to fire a federal worker flagged for misconduct, plus an average of eight more months to resolve appeals.  Millions, probably billions of taxpayer dollars get eaten up by this process as well as for paying people doing union related work and dealing with labor contract bargaining.

  It’s all in drastic need of an overhaul and Trump’s executive orders are a step in the right direction.  The House Republicans protesting this are blatantly choosing unions over the American people.  It’s kind of gross they are not even trying to hide this.

  To read their letter asking President Trump to rescind the Executive Orders, go here.  It provides a handy listing of names too so don’t by shy about letting them know what you think.