GETTING TO KNOW YOUR “DEEP STATE”
UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF THE “BEAST”
I would like to preface this piece with a statement. First, I do not believe the vast majority of those who work in “public service” are evil. Most are just folks like you and me. They have families and bills to pay and desire some quality of life with safety and as much financial security as possible. Secondly, some government services are essential, whether performed by employees or contractors: Safety, Fire Protection, National Defense, Infrastructure Integrity, Education and availability of Health Care for example.
The problem with the “Beast” is that we are all human and desire guaranteed security and do not want to “work ourselves out of a job” so that our services are no longer needed. Many, maybe most, government “services” and agencies were created to solve a problem, but, if the problem they were created for were ever solved, the agency or department would no longer be needed. Example: If poverty were eliminated there would be no need for a welfare system or the bureaucracy that supports it. Hence, there is an incentive to prolong the “problem”, even expand it to make it grow. And, for most employees, they acquire lifetime benefits and retirement pay in a job they can’t be fired from and will never go away. All paid for by the taxpayers. Tell me, if you are a career bureaucrat working in that department what incentive do you have for poverty to vanish?
Another example would be the U.S. Department of energy – an article from 2012 follows below.
Ronald Reagan once said: “Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!”
An anonymous story of how government programs become “eternal”
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.
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A Real Example
The United States Department of Energy
A Blueprint For Building A Monolithic “Forever” Department Of Waste
Back in April 2012 I wrote an article which included the following illustration of a very real government agency and its history of growth and “achievement”:
Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the Department of Energy during the Carter Administration? Bottom line is, we’ve spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency…. the reason for which not many who read this can remember!
The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL. Now it’s 2012 —- 35 years later —- and the budget for this “necessary” department is $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! 35 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports….. Great job! Good old Federal bureaucracy. (And we could supply all our oil needs from the USA) …… Update: for 2022 the Department of Energy budget has grown to $44.988 Billion Dollars and we are again importing oil though we have been, for a short time and could again be energy independent if the government would get out of the way.
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Many other examples of wasteful government spending which grew out of the pregnant thoughts of some bureaucrat to solve real or imaginary problems could be given. For a humorous look at similar non-problem solutions you might want to read about California’s Paperwork Reduction Department which I dreamed up back in 2015. Just type Paperwork Reduction in the search box (left column). While the illustration is intentionally “over the top” the principal can be seen at work in many government agencies at all levels, especially State and Federal.
Here is one to think about: Why do we need a $637.7 Billion Dollar Federal Department of Education? Education should be a State function. There are so many others.
Bob Bandy – February 2023
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