The Career Civil Servant.

What does it mean when someone involved in a political scandal is described as being a “career civil servant”? Have these people undergone some sort of cranial procedure? Are they politically the equivalent of eunuchs?, having had their political organs removed thus making them incapable of political operation? I hardly think so.

Civil service at the Post Office Department, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drug Agency (FDA), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) is not a higher calling. It’s a job working for the largest employer in the United States, an employer that’s always hiring. One that offers compensation packages equal to or better than you find in the private sector with the added benefit of almost armor plated job security. In an era when the disappearance of the 40 year plus career with a single employer is mourned, the possibility is alive and well in the civil service. To be sure, there are non-military civil assignments with danger attached, but to be equally as sure, the IRS isn’t one of them.

Career “civil servants” have played the game correctly. They’ve filled out the multi-page questionnaires and applications and waited months for the response. Having been successful, the climbers have correctly judged the environment in which they existed and behaved accordingly. They wrote their reports in language that couldn’t be read as offensive to anyone’s sensibilities, they have been scrupulously politically correct, and have been duly promoted. Those who chaffed at the requirement of total surrender to diversity, inclusiveness, and correctness have been winnowed out and moved to the private sector.

So, to say that someone is a career public servant is, in general, just about the farthest thing in the world from saying that they are apolitical with no axe to grind.

But that’s just what an average guy thinks.

Comprehensive Legislation

Comprehensive legislation of ANY kind is the enemy of the American people.

To fully realize this you must first understand that the federal government of the United States is incapable of effectively administering even the most simple program imaginable. The reason for this is quite simple: Thanks to the 17th amendment (close kin to the 18th) members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate are selected by popular election. This means that both bodies of congress are subject to the intense lobbying efforts of the same special interest groups, and those aren’t just corporate fat cats. They run the gamut from the Boy Scouts of America to the AARP. From the SEIU to the NRA, and every alphabet soup trade organization with a dues paying membership you can think of. They are ALL trying to look out for the best interests of their members….. people like you and me, and the devil take the hindmost.

And so when they put “Comprehensive” legislation together it must necessarily contain something for everyone, or at least not seem to favor one group over another. These bills are often very large and VERY complex with inner workings that no one (especially not the voting members of the bodies themselves) understands or has even read. It’s only a matter of what did they have to agree to in order to get their little bit inserted back there in the back, somewhere after page one thousand where there’s no chance at all that anyone will see it.

Today’s “Comprehensive” legislation concerns immigration. One side wants a complete amnesty for those who have come here illegally and open boarders so no one will ever have to come here illegally again. The other wants to control and monitor who comes in and for those already here illegally to face some consequence for violation of the law before they can avail themselves of the naturalization process. This is a vast oversimplification to be sure, because the existing machinery of legal immigration is woefully out of date and for practical purposes worthless. Foreign “students” come and go as they please, some occasionally taking time out to plot the nation’s downfall and kill as many of us as they can. Living on government payments and student loans they travel around the country and back home as freely as someone with an assured and generous income, seemingly not having to worry about things as simple as going to work every day, or abiding by the terms of their visas.

But we are told yet again not to worry. All of this will be taken care of in the “Comprehensive” legislation. We are asked to believe yet again that the federal government, which is arguably run by diverse special interest groups, is capable of designing, implementing, and then administering what it takes over a thousand pages of written text to even describe. The reality is a cruel joke. The economist Milton Friedman has rightly said that “if you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there’d be a shortage of sand”. Everyone knows that it’s a joke, but everyone also knows that it’s true. And yet we are asked again, even in the wake of the administration’s now confirmed lies about the Affordable Care Act, the IRS computer crashes, NSA spying and the disastrous healthcare.gov roll out to believe that they can build it. “Trust us” we’re told. “We’re from the government”. “It’s the right thing to do”.

The reality is that once the complex “Comprehensive” Frankenstein monster is agreed to and passed the administration in power will simply enforce whichever parts are in the interests of THEIR particular special interest sponsors and leave the rest. Bits and pieces will be quietly amended out of existence once the stage lights have turned to focus on some other issue. “Yes”. “We believe in border security, but we can’t let that stand in the way of progress”. You can see how it will happen already because it’s already being said.

“Comprehensive” legislation is your enemy. “Ala carte”, single function legislation that you can read and understand is your friend, and a friend to your nation.

But that’s just what an average guy thinks.