I'm in Dallas on a layover from Hawaii where I was in a wedding that was not my own. When in Hawaii, it's easy to forget that you're actually in the United States. All it took was five minutes of CNN Airport News to remind me that America was in trouble.
Here are two of the things I heard that hurt my ears. And this doesn't include the five other things or more that I've heard since I started typing this.
First of all, the Plum Book came out today. It lists the 8,000 or so government jobs that will be available when the administration changes. If you're interested, they're posted on change.gov.
And if you are interested, you should consider that there are a lot of people without jobs and houses because the money that could have gone towards creating that position or paying that mortgage are going to pay your salary and health benefits. Don't take it personally, I know you will be performing an important task if you are hired, like the TSA agent who checked my boarding pass--the first and second times. You know the same boarding pass every person accused of hijacking and crashing those flights on September 11th had.
Or you could be peforming an important task like the three people from the USDA who watched my bag go through an X-Ray to make sure I wasn't carrying anything deadly back to the mainland like fresh Hawaiian fruit. Only Dole is allowed to do that.
I digress.
The second news article was about WebMD being able to spot a flu outbreak 10 days before the CDC. Hmm, a company can actually do something more efficiently than a government organization? Hard to believe. But at least the diseases they spot won't be caused by fruits from Hawaii. Tomatoes will probably take the blame, whether or not they did it.
Can someone, please, provide a good justification for why my money should be confiscated to support people who aren't competent enough to survive in the private sector and are employed for my "safety" that I never asked for? Neither did the majority of people in 75% of the states, by the way, which is what it would have taken to pass an Amendment giving the government the official power to create these agencies to begin with. Maybe if I write some variation of that 5000 or so times in the next 4-8 years, it will catch on. Like the flu. That the government won't spot until it's 10 days to late to do anything about it.
Your Fellow American,
John Armstrong
strongarmedjohn@yahoo.com
Do whatever you'd like with this article.
©2008 John Armstrong, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Last modified: Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The views expressed in this article are those of John Armstrong only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. John Armstrong is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Report violation by John Armstrong of Nolan Chart LLC's terms of use policy.
| More Articles By John Armstrong |
Reader Comments:
Posted By: daddysteve
Date: 2008-11-12 17:42:31
If they're anything like the Treasury Dept. , they'll deny the problem right up until they ram a "Flu Bill" through congress. Probably include farm pork to get my c@cks#%king congressman to support it.
Posted By: Spence
Date: 2008-11-13 15:27:37
Steve, I'm ashamed of you. The next time that you want to curse, do so properly. Otherwise, true nuff ;)
Good same old shitty rant as usual, Mr. Armstrong. You and the thousand of other 'columnists' here with your daily grievances and "gov't is bad" mantra. Fantastic as always. And original!
/sarcasm
Posted By: justplainjason
Date: 2008-11-13 16:06:44
Being a disabled veteran I see the ineptness of the government all the time when I go to the VA hospital. There is very little accountability of the employees that work for the VA (or any government agency). Luckily the primary areas I deal with are populated by people who want to help. I don't know how many times I have conversed with my Psychiatrist, Neurological nurse, or Occupational therapist about how we wish we could just fire someone for being incompetent or lazy. Unfortunately, more often than not noone is held accountable for their actions or the ineffiency of their program. Here is a crazy idea if the program isn't working cut it, not give it more money to make it work. Tie pay raises to performance and not seniority.
Their has been some advocating that the military pay more based on job and performance. For instance, a combat arms soldier (infantry, artillery, engineer, etc...) get paid more than a clerk. Also that a high performing soldier gets more money than a soldier of equal grade just doing enough to get by. There is competition based on performance and seniority that promotions are based on, and if you don't make a certain rank in a certain ammount of years you are discharged (sounds like firing to me). I am not sure if anywhere else in the government that this happens. Another thing, depending on the need and difficulty of a job bonuses are higher i.e...special forces can get around a $100,000 signing bonus to compete with private companies wanting their talent.
Many areas of government are forced to spend all of their budget, because the next year they may not get the same ammount. This budget may not have been needed in the current year, but may be needed in the next. Rather than agency x being able to carry over money to the next year, they are forced to spend it in the current year. How much money could be saved if effecient agencies (yes there are a few) were allowed to maybe save some of their money for a "rainy day" rather than spend it and be forced to look for appropriations when they really need it. For example, Missouri (my home state) had the state constitution changed so that all taxes collected from fuel sales were to go to the highway department (wow a usary tax...who would have thought that would work). Now that the highway department is no longer constrained by a yearly budget decided by beurocrats, our roads have went from one of the worst rated to one of the highest rated. Also, gasonline is our state is the second lowest in the us (this information is a week old so it may be better or worse).
These are some of my crazy ideas. I wouldn't mind some feedback to make sure that my arguments are consise. I am in a bit of a rush to type this because I got to pick up the wife.