The Axeman Cometh: Not from New Orleans — From NY to The Oval Office

Trump Administration: The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse

The Original Four: Conquest, War, Famine, and Death

Add Two = Eternal Damnation

(Reinhold Richard “Reince” Priebus and Stephen “Breitbart” Bannon)

A very long post, but needs to be closely examined, regarding Mr. Trump and his plans to remodel government and implement massive changes that focus on getting rid of many Federal employees and their benefits, etc., as well as reducing or greatly diminishing the role of certain Federal departments. 

An outline of all that is here from the Washington Post (to fit the blog) from November 21, 2016: Basic point is that Trump and the all-Republican-controlled Congress are drawing up plans to take on the government bureaucracy they have long railed against since the Civil Service was passed into law over a 130 years ago.

(NOTE: Many raise the specter that Republicans could allow political favoritism to creep into a system Congress created in 1883 to remove federal jobs from patronage ranks).

They plan to erode job protections to grind down benefits that federal workers now receive and have for generations such as:

1.  Hiring freezes

2.  End to automatic raises

3.  Green light to fire poor performers

4.  Ban on union business on the government’s dime, and

5.  Reduced and less generous retirement pensions

(NOTE: On the surface it sounds great (to all GOPers and anti-government types, but the details will matter the most — my advice: hang on right).

These changes were once unthinkable to federal employees, their unions and their supporters in Congress. Trump always told voters DC and the Federal employee system is awash in “waste, fraud and abuse” and now he has conservatives optimistic that they could do now what Republicans have been unable to do since the civil service was created in 1883.

INTRODUCTION: Congressional Republicans have clamored for years for a smaller bureaucracy and a workforce that resembles the private sector. Now, with a Trump White House eliminating a veto threat, conservatives see their vision within reach. 

Gingrich’s Two Cents: He says in no uncertain terms: “You have the country moving to the right and being much more anti-Washington than it was. We’re going to have to get the country to understand how big the problem is, the human costs of it and why it’s absolutely essential to reform.”

Gingrich urges Trump to shrink big government and overhaul the “job-for-life” guarantee of federal workers, and he predicts Stephen K. Bannon, the former Breitbart News chief who helped steer Trump’s campaign and is now one of his most influential advisers, will lead the effort saying: “It’s a big, big project.” The project aligns with Bannon’s long-stated warnings about the corrupting influence of government and a capital city rampant with “crony capitalism.”

Tied to that is Breitbart headlines also provide a possible insight into his views, with federal employees described as overpaid, too numerous and a “privileged class and the number of Government Employees Now Surpasses Manufacturing Jobs by 9,977,000,” the website proclaimed in November. 

(NOTE: There are 2.1 million federal civilian employees NOT 9.9 million).

Top Republicans on Capitol Hill say their first priority will be making it easier to fire employees regarded as incompetent or who break the rules.

“It’s nearly impossible to fire somebody. When the overwhelming majority do a good job and the one bad apple is there viewing pornography, I want people to be held accountable.” The promises go hand in hand with Trump’s promise to shrink the size and reach of government, from eliminating some agencies outright to lifting regulations and running the bureaucracy with fewer people.

They will probably get guidance from WI Gov. Scott "Koch" Walker (R), who stripped public employee unions of most of their collective-bargaining rights and forced workers to pay more into their pensions and for health care in what became a bitter political fight. 

Also, directly from Pence. Pence as IN Gov., battled public employee unions and approved pay increases for state workers who receive good performance reviews, a strategy tried at DOD under Bush but which was poorly managed and eventually abolished. The pay-for-performance idea is nonetheless a rebuke to the government’s system of raises based on longevity. Even the military has their pay system based on longevity – is it next?

“We’re going to be playing defense for at least a couple of years,” acknowledged William R. Dougan, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, the third-largest federal union.

“The most immediate worry is: How are we going to shrink government?” Dougan said. “Are we going to lay people off? Eliminate whole agencies or do it through attrition?”  Trump has promised that in his first 100 days in office he will freeze hiring by not replacing employees who leave. The military and employees in public health and safety roles would be exempt, according to the president-elect’s Contract with the American Voter. 

(NOTE: Remember Gingrich's “Contract with America” back in the 1994 campaign? It was a huge flop. Some even ended up calling it “Contract on Americans”).

Trump also has pledged to eliminate two regulations for every new one passed and shut down the Education Department and parts of the EPA.

Trump also wants more ships, planes, and troops. Trump also wants to triple the number of immigration enforcement agents and beef up the border patrol by thousands. 

(NOTE: A selective job hiring freeze may be more realistic, but keep in mind, only agencies Republicans hate; not the ones they like to see grow).

Trump can freeze hiring without Congress’ approval, with an executive order or less formal instructions to federal agencies. Democrats and federal employee unions are preparing to fight the image of government workers as a privileged class and the bureaucracy as a bloated mess.

“Of course we want accountability, but we also want to protect against political favoritism. It’s important that we not allow the civil service to be politicized,” said Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who will be entering office as a newly-elected Senator.

Many inside and outside government agree that change to the way federal workers are hired, promoted and disciplined is long overdue. Employees under investigation for breaking the rules can sit at home for years — collecting paychecks and benefits — while their cases drag on. Performance rankings are widely panned as a joke, because the vast majority of workers are rated as exceeding expectations or doing outstanding work (it’s called due process for a reason – to keep political hacks and cronies out of the mix).

Federal workers are seldom fired for poor performance — and it can take years for managers to make a successful case for dismissal for misconduct. About 0.5 percent of the civil service gets fired every year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Trump says he wants to freeze hiring to clean up corruption in government — but not necessarily to save money, a connection roundly dismissed by critics, saying: “Look at what’s happening with every agency — waste, fraud and abuse. We will cut so much, your head will spin.”

(NOTE: Presidents including Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both froze hiring to shrink government — but that rarely succeeded for long periods). 

For example, Reagan imposed a freeze the day he came into office in 1981 that was retroactive to Election Day – that forced managers to renege on job offers to hundreds of people. Then under him the government ballooned with active-duty military and DOC civilians as he began a massive defense buildup. 

(NOTE: The civilian workforce is the smallest it has been since Reagan left office, after plummeting under Clinton and expanding under Bush and President Obama).

Yet Republicans say a leaner government goes hand in hand with a more accountable one in which managers and rank-and-file employees who’ve failed should not get to keep their jobs. These changes have taken root, with a bipartisan law in 2014 to limit the appeal rights of senior executives at Veterans Affairs who face discipline for wrongdoing.

This year that stopped altogether in the face of a court challenge alleging that it violated employees’ right to due process, and other changes could result in longer probation for new employees which has a goal to make it easier for managers to let poor performers go since they would have little job protections. This has started at DOD where the current standard has doubled to two years.

These changes are vigorously opposed by unions, which could be severely weakened under GOP plans to eventually wipe out what’s known as “official time,” union work done by employees who continue to receive full salary and benefits.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, (and who BTW: in 2014 voted against the Sanders-McCain Vet funding and improvement bill along with Sen. Sessions and Corker – recent Trump nominees) said in an email that he will reach out to federal employee unions as his panel works to enact “long-overdue reforms to our civil service. If we start with areas of agreement, I am confident that we can make continuous improvements to the functionality of the federal workforce.”

Finally, and directly taken from this fine article are these 5 key issues.

My Summary: The worse is yet to come – wait until the impact reaches Mr. and Mrs. Main Street – like a former government employee, or retired Federal employee, or a senior on fixed income (SS) and Medicare and the “Axemen truly cometh for their wallet” as they see how the programs they are entitled to have been reduced to the point where they are ineffective and non-responsive – what then, um?

Simply stay tuned… just my fear-mongering some will say, but before you ask, no, it is not my intent or purpose, or some silly ass game, just stating the obvious.

Regardless, thanks for stopping by.