How Our Bureaucracy Works

Dick Baynton
Dick Baynton

According to my dictionary, a bureaucracy is a government run by bureaucrats. However, bureaucracies develop in most organizations where there are 25 or more members or workers. In the milieu of government bureaus, agencies, sub-agencies, offices, departments, divisions, branches, districts and sections there are people lost in the ethereal fabric of organizational control. Many of these people are officious workers with important titles but in essence are drones, actualizing the wishes of the bureaucrats who are protected from responsibility and accountability. An example of this is the ‘loss’ of two years of Lois Lerner’s outgoing E-Mails.  Lerner is the IRS person that is the prime suspect in the interminable delays in the applications submitted by non-profit conservative groups during the 2009 presidential election.

The main difference between government and other bureaucracies is that governments have no planned goals of profit. Public companies usually have substantial debt obligations that should be accommodated on dates certain and amounts absolute. When this doesn‘t happen, companies often file reorganization or liquidation bankruptcy and people lose their jobs. Government officials simply extract more money from taxpayers for more workers when there is a perceived need for more funds to pitch into a black hole.

Government agency and department heads lay out vague verbal commitments but the anticipated results are usually changed or ignored altogether. Annual budgets are based on inflation (cost-of-living) increases automatically. When more money is needed, specialists write formal requests with excuses and list sedate reasons why additional funding is critical.

A comparison is General Motors. Dan Akerson left the CEO job at the end of 2013, turning the reins of leadership over to long-time employee Mary Barra. After a short review, CEO Barra dismissed 15 people that were perceived incompetents in their oversight and handling of the ignition failures. In government scandals over the past several years of the Obama administration, no one has been fired. Some have been separated and are riding front porch rocking chairs, enjoying the retirement benefits of their loyal office attendance.

Here are some foibles that should not be read by minor children:

The student loan program that was adopted by Presidential fiat in 2010 will cost taxpayers untold billions of dollars due to non-payment (delinquency) of borrowers.

Obamacare (The Affordable Care Act) will cost families about $4,200 more in annual premiums in 2019 and about 40 million people will be uninsured by 2024. The ACA was supposed to add more than 30 million to the roles of citizens insured.

The Top Bureaucrat (that’s the President) is pushing wind and solar power but one critic says that to keep up with electric power demand, 108,000 square miles will be needed annually for wind turbines. Despite the President’s loathing for fossil fuels, the DOE spends almost $600 million in subsidies for R&D in coal, natural gas and oil.

Top bureaucrats allocate funds to those people who spend the largesse on pet programs, often without repayment. This is called ‘crony capitalism.’ Interest on the debt and federal pensions total almost a half trillion dollars per year ($500 billion). Currently, the national debt stands at $17.5 trillion. That’s the equivalent of 36 years of total sales by Wal-Mart. If the government spends $250 billion less each year than is brought in from taxes, fees, penalties and tariffs, the national budget will be balanced in 70 years, almost two generations. Will this government reduce annual spending by $250 billion? The answer is a resounding NO!

The suggestion that your minor children should be protected from reading today’s column is because of the debt being passed along to them. By 2018 the national debt burden is expected to be $60,000 per citizen and almost $1.2 million per taxpayer for unfunded Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Disability and Prescription Drugs. At some specific time in the future the liabilities will come due to be paid by our descendants. The downward spiral of the U.S. must be reversed; will we rise to the challenge or must our sons and daughters and their progeny do the heavy lifting?

By Dick Baynton

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