Currents November 2016 | Page 3

Currents November 2016 3 The Case for Bureaucracy I n the past this writer has made the case for Citizen Government, similar to the founding government; one was a temporary official, whilst working at a trade or profession to earn a living. The argument being that folks from the Community can best see and fulfill the Community's needs from Washington. The argument against this type of government has been that it creates a Bureaucratic Class. Officials who are unelected, thus unaccountable. Moreover, they will lead the naïve elected officials to benefit the Bureaucracy not the nation. The last four presidential elections have served to quench that desire. Michelle Bauchman, Sarah Pallin, Donald Trump. Not to mention the incumbents who are medical doctors who, at least publicly, prove they are ignorant, despite decades of education. We quite possibly benefit from a Political and Bureaucratic Class. People educated in foreign affairs, economics, and public policy. But it would need to be fully funded, probably from defense spending. No more Reaganesk theories on how to fight fraud and abuse. Since the Reagan Administration's desire to “Starve the Beast” became the GOP mantra, the conservative political mindset and rhetoric has been dependent upon non sequiturs. The main strategy goes like this: Government spends money on things that do not benefit our conservative values and it wastes billions through fraud, waste and abuse. Therefore, we must starve the beast of resources. Which is a non sequitur. One cannot fight fraud, waste and abuse while decreasing the number of employees needed to ensure quality service and investigate fraud. For example, in a recent speech, Donald J. Trump revived a Republican plan to reduce the federal work force in part by replacing only some of the employees who retire as a way to pay for increased military spending and to avoid exceeding limits on the size of the federal budget. He also said he wanted to raise money by eliminating waste, collecting unpaid taxes and stopping improper tax payments. But these two goals - decreasing the federal work force and avoiding government excess and mismanagement - are actually contradictory, despite all the political rhetoric about the perils of bureaucracy. Reducing the size of government, especially in the arbitrary manner of not replacing retirees, makes it harder, not easier, to achieve cost-saving goals, because it gets rid of the very professionals who are needed to continued on page 4 > STOP YOUR WINDOW LEAK PROBLEMS Be P Hu repa rric red Fix you ane for th S rW in eas e NO dow on W! Lea ks Dried out gaskets and window stripping will cause window leaks. I have the proper window stripping to repair all types of windows. I also do Screening, Wrol-up Repair and Sliding Glass Doors. CALL REE F ATES IM EST PATRICK Cell No. 954-829-4348 [email protected] FPL Independent Participating Contractor 3621 Washington Street • Hollywood, FL 33021