It seems to be an article of faith that term limits on Senators and Representatives are the answer to government excess. That’s utter nonsense. All it does is change the people holding the levers of power. Instead of elected officials (even if, once elected, they are almost never thrown out of office, as a practical matter), we will have unelected committee staffers who will remain almost anonymous.
Don’t change the people with their hands on the levers. Reduce the leverage: Reduce government authority by getting the government out of fields it does not belong in.
But… but… what will all those otherwise unskilled people DO?!
The 537 elected federal politicians in DC are the Hollywood Government. The real government is the hundreds of thousands of federal employees in the vast collection of bureaus, agencies, and such. They’re virtually untouchable, totally unaccountable to the population, and will actively undermine any politician who goes against their wishes.
Term limits for elected representatives, and limited staff – say a total of three: Two in DC, and one in the home office.
Without serious civil service reform, all term limits will accomplish is making the Nomenklatura even more powerful. They already know they can undermine any politician they want by active means (like they did with Trump) or by simply ignoring them until the politicians go away.
If you want less politics, you need less government.
“The real government is the hundreds of thousands of federal employees in the vast collection of bureaus, agencies, and such. They’re virtually untouchable, totally unaccountable to the population, and will actively undermine any politician who goes against their wishes.”
Trump has/had a plan (and executive order actually) to make those workers ~50K subject to summary firing. If they deliberately undermined the lawful directive of the chief executive they can be terminated:
“The plan, as detailed to Axios and confirmed by Government Executive, would bring back Schedule F, a workforce initiative Trump pushed in the 11th hour of his term to politicize the federal bureaucracy. The former officials and current confidantes are, through a network of Trump-loyal think tanks and public policy organizations, creating lists of names to supplant existing civil servants. They have identified 50,000 current employees that could be dismissed under the new authority they seek to create, Axios reported and Government Executive confirmed, though they hope to only actually fire a fraction of that total and hope the resulting “chilling effect” will cause the rest to fall in line.”
This is why the deep state will do everything in its power to stop Trump from being re-elected.
Um, not trying to be ‘that’ guy, but isn’t this what libertarians have been saying for, like, forever?
And I think part of the point is to let people go and not replace them, not fire them and “supplant” them with political loyalists.
I’ve long drawn a distinction between politicians and statesmen. Politicians engage in the mental ma$turbation of politics (q.v. the never-ending presidential campaign in the mainstream media). Statesmen engage in the art of statecraft, necessary in the global theatre. This country could really use some good statesmen right now, but the Uniparty machine has so unbalanced the functioning of government that who in their right minds would want to lay hands on that tar baby to try to fix it?
Were I to go into government, which I won’t because I’m a libertarian and such a thing is anathema to me though were the citizenry to ask I would serve, I would focus on the basics. I would immediately start carving out excesses and luxuries. Roads, parks and utilities/infrastructure are the priority. If it’s not something that is shared by the entirety of the citizenry (like a library) then it’s up for sunsetting and folks would have to make some really, really strong cases to continue funding for a lot of the nonsense that government funds. But I rest confident in the knowledge that I get to continue my quiet, drama-free existence. I know how screwed things are, and there is absolutely nothing I can do to stop it.
Gonna be a helluva ride.
“Now I know what a statesman is; he’s a dead politician. We need more statesmen.”
– Bob Edwards
It seems to be an article of faith that term limits on Senators and Representatives are the answer to government excess. That’s utter nonsense. All it does is change the people holding the levers of power. Instead of elected officials (even if, once elected, they are almost never thrown out of office, as a practical matter), we will have unelected committee staffers who will remain almost anonymous.
Don’t change the people with their hands on the levers. Reduce the leverage: Reduce government authority by getting the government out of fields it does not belong in.
But… but… what will all those otherwise unskilled people DO?!
The 537 elected federal politicians in DC are the Hollywood Government. The real government is the hundreds of thousands of federal employees in the vast collection of bureaus, agencies, and such. They’re virtually untouchable, totally unaccountable to the population, and will actively undermine any politician who goes against their wishes.
Term limits for elected representatives, and limited staff – say a total of three: Two in DC, and one in the home office.
Without serious civil service reform, all term limits will accomplish is making the Nomenklatura even more powerful. They already know they can undermine any politician they want by active means (like they did with Trump) or by simply ignoring them until the politicians go away.
If you want less politics, you need less government.
“The real government is the hundreds of thousands of federal employees in the vast collection of bureaus, agencies, and such. They’re virtually untouchable, totally unaccountable to the population, and will actively undermine any politician who goes against their wishes.”
Trump has/had a plan (and executive order actually) to make those workers ~50K subject to summary firing. If they deliberately undermined the lawful directive of the chief executive they can be terminated:
“The plan, as detailed to Axios and confirmed by Government Executive, would bring back Schedule F, a workforce initiative Trump pushed in the 11th hour of his term to politicize the federal bureaucracy. The former officials and current confidantes are, through a network of Trump-loyal think tanks and public policy organizations, creating lists of names to supplant existing civil servants. They have identified 50,000 current employees that could be dismissed under the new authority they seek to create, Axios reported and Government Executive confirmed, though they hope to only actually fire a fraction of that total and hope the resulting “chilling effect” will cause the rest to fall in line.”
https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2022/07/trump-reelected-aides-plan-purge-civil-service/374842/
This is why the deep state will do everything in its power to stop Trump from being re-elected.
Um, not trying to be ‘that’ guy, but isn’t this what libertarians have been saying for, like, forever?
And I think part of the point is to let people go and not replace them, not fire them and “supplant” them with political loyalists.
I’ve long drawn a distinction between politicians and statesmen. Politicians engage in the mental ma$turbation of politics (q.v. the never-ending presidential campaign in the mainstream media). Statesmen engage in the art of statecraft, necessary in the global theatre. This country could really use some good statesmen right now, but the Uniparty machine has so unbalanced the functioning of government that who in their right minds would want to lay hands on that tar baby to try to fix it?
Were I to go into government, which I won’t because I’m a libertarian and such a thing is anathema to me though were the citizenry to ask I would serve, I would focus on the basics. I would immediately start carving out excesses and luxuries. Roads, parks and utilities/infrastructure are the priority. If it’s not something that is shared by the entirety of the citizenry (like a library) then it’s up for sunsetting and folks would have to make some really, really strong cases to continue funding for a lot of the nonsense that government funds. But I rest confident in the knowledge that I get to continue my quiet, drama-free existence. I know how screwed things are, and there is absolutely nothing I can do to stop it.
Gonna be a helluva ride.
“Now I know what a statesman is; he’s a dead politician. We need more statesmen.”
– Bob Edwards