Federal government consists of three branches; Executive (President), Legislative (Senate & House of Representatives) and Judicial (the federal court system topped by The Supreme Court). These are the parts of the swamp that appear above water. Below the waterline are thousands of staff members, lobbyists, advisors and surplus hundreds of thousands of laggards that are often incorrectly called ‘workers.’ Current healthcare legislation was not created by legislators; it was generated by staff with input from outside the confines of congress.
The same lack of participation relates to the current status of our immigration system; the problem with current practice is that many of these immigrants, both legal and illegal want to also bring along their culture. This means that we must adjust our school curricula to fit the language of their native tongue.
This culture adherence relates to Sharia law that justifies the killing a 15-year-old daughter who has the temerity to turn her head and look at a boy about her age. The expediency of pleasing various factions has made our immigration laws a program driven by specific wants without reference to the spirit and letter of the law.
Our nation is 40th in math, 25th in science and 24th in reading in the 2016 world survey of 540,000 -15-year-old students measured in 72 countries. The nation with the best results in all three categories is Singapore. Canada’s students did considerably better than U.S. students in this report of PISA (Program for International Student Assessment). Here’s how our governments react to this information.
With teacher shortages in all 50 states, Minnesota, Arizona and Illinois have revamped their licensing process. Utah ‘lowered’ their standards last year and Connecticut is considering making changes in their certification process for the first time in 20 years. California, Colorado and Oklahoma have resorted to allowing teachers to teach full time using substitute licenses. Our students are already unable to keep up with their counterparts in other nations, so we are lowering our standards?
How about local, state and federal governments and colleges and universities changing the rules set by Teachers union bosses such as Ms. Randi Weingarten, current President of the American Federation of Teachers? Wiengarten is in the vanguard of hatred for ‘Charter Schools’ while ignoring the importance of student learning results in favor of compensation and retirement for teachers and giving vast sums of charitable donations to Democratic causes. Weingarten is paid more than $500,000 per year.
Taxpayers spend $180 billion annually on Veteran’s Affairs, most of which is for hospital/medical care. Recently Inspector General Michael Missel reported that The Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C. had 18 of 25 storage areas of sterile supplies that were dirty, there was no effective inventory system for medical supplies and expired and recalled products were sometimes used on patients. There were 194 official reports of safety incidents over the past three years and vendors were removing equipment because of non-payment.
Director Brian Hawkins had distributed bonuses without justification and impeded efforts to investigate the bonus allegations. Hawkins claims he was wrongly terminated and has appealed to the ‘Merit Systems Protection Board’ that was established in 1979. Trump’s VA Secretary Dr. David Shulkin says he will test VA accountability and hopes to terminate the director of this hospital that serves 100,000 veterans.
Our politicians turned government employees as fiduciaries of our taxes are severely deficient in core constituencies such as healthcare, immigration, and education. Management of the USPS, Amtrak, The Veteran’s Administration, the IRS and other agencies has been relinquished to unions who set terms of employment, work rules and compensation; agency directors and appointed officials look on as spectators to waste and losses stemming from inadequacies of performance.
New reports are published daily indicating that no Democrat will vote for the ‘repeal and replace’ of the failing healthcare act because it is the legacy of their hero, Mr. Obama. After campaigning to ‘repeal and replace’, Republicans don’t have the votes to get rid of Obamacare to the joy of Democrats.’
Men and women of both parties stand in the knee-deep muck of the Washington D.C. quagmire called, ‘The Swamp’ and savor the good ole’ days of ‘business as usual.’ Stupidity is incurable.
Dick Baynton
