Those comments in the piece re. the IRREPLACEABLE top staffers and how there are no parallels to the State Department in the private sector were so much BS and prompt me to offer a thought. (Because they make my tiny brain hurt, I try to limit myself to no more than 3 or 4 thoughts each year.)
Here goes!
As with ALL bureaucracies, MOST ESPECIALLY those in DC, “The Thing From Foggy Bottom” has become so bloated and misshapen that there probably is NOT anything comparable in that (SARCASM ALERT!) stupid old private sector where success, indeed SURVIVAL, requires efficiency, agility and competence! I’m betting that Rex Tillerson understands that and will replace the absent apparatchiks with alacrity and act to REFORMULATE the entire damn thing so that it looks and functions more like a BUSINESS, the prime activity of which is advancing THIS country’s interests (FOR A CHANGE!) and prompting good and FAIR relations with others.
There, I’ve said it I’m glad!!
NIGHT WATCHMAN
Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert
Congress said, Someone may steal from it at night.
So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.
Then Congress said, How does the watchman do his job without instruction?
So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies. Then Congress said, How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?
So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One was to do the studies and one was to write the reports. Then Congress said, How are these people going to get paid?
So they created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer then hired two people.
Then Congress said, Who will be accountable for all of these people? So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.
Then Congress said, We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back. So they laid-off the night watchman.
NOW slowly, let it sink in
Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter. Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY during the Carter administration?
Anybody? Anything?
No? Didn’t think so!
Bottom line is, we’ve spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency, the reason for which very few people that read this can remember! I Ready??
It was very simple... and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate.
The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.
Hey, pretty efficient, huh?
AND NOW IT’S 2012 — 35 YEARS LATER — AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS NECESSARY DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE! (THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?)
34 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports.
Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports ah, yes — good old Federal Bureaucracy.
NOW, WE HAVE TURNED OVER THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT?