August 20, 2009
The Government We Don't Talk About
There are vast areas of government we Americans don’t talk about. The reason we don’t is simple. It does what its supposed to do, either all the time, or nearly all the time. The Health Care Reform debate, like so many other hot button issues of contest in our history, overshadows the public’s awareness of America’s greatness as a government. Let’s take a moment to look at some areas of our federal government that do work well.
Though the United States Post Office is in need of some heavy reforms of its own, and is now running large deficits, Social Security recipients do receive their checks on a timely basis. As do government employees, private contractors doing business with the government, and the host of others who count on the Postal Service and government to deliver via the US Postal system.
In fact, the entire agencies in our government responsible for getting those stimulus checks out, and managing the government's payroll works so well, there is no cause for the media to ruckus over government failures to deliver what it is obliged by law to deliver.
Republicans finger prints are all over the Postal Service deficits. Republicans held rate increases down on the massive junk and bulk mail loved by businesses, while attempting pay for increasing costs by hiking first class mail rates dramatically, with the consequence of driving first class postal customers to electronic transactions in record numbers. Which of course resulted in the dramatic losses of revenues and now rising deficits. Hopefully, this will get turned around soon. Tthe postal service which Republicans inherited was producing a 3.87 billion dollar surplus in 2003, which declined every year Republicans had control through 2008, resulting in that year with a 2.3 Billion dollar loss. But, that's fodder for another article.
Don't hear much about our national parks or BLM (thousands of square miles of lands managed by the federal government) being mismanaged these days. That's not to say there aren't folks who believe they are being mismanaged, and have been for decades, myself included, but, more folks are visiting our national parks than ever before, and ranchers, pot growers, and the camping public all seem to be sharing the use of Bureau of Land Management areas without difficulty.
The Treasury Department and US Printing Offices don't seem to be having any difficulties printing money, copious quantities of it, as well as keeping pace with counterfeiters. No news stories here to fluff dandruff into the air about voter's heads.
Drawing down in Iraq is going as expected. All who stayed abreast of the conditions in Iraq knew that violence would increase as American troops withdrew. Though the bombs in public squares are horrible, their increase does not seem to threaten the stability of the Iraqi govenrment so far, as some had predicted, who believed we needed to stay forever, as in Japan and Germany.
Though public sentiment on the Afghanistan war, that war that started with an invasion with no plan in place to conclude it,
In a stunning victory for our American government's State Dep't, Treasury, and Judicial system Swiss banks have been ordered to reveal 4,450 names of Americans using tax havens in heretofore, secret Swiss accounts. What's that saying about the powerful wealthy not being able to fool all the people, all of the time?
Head Start Programs, which readies children 4 and 5 year olds from economically disadvantaged families for school, by providing them with developmental skills approaching par with those of children from Middle and Upper class families, has received the highest consumer approval ratings of any agency in government, according to one report. And this despite 13% declines in federal funding under the Bush Administration. Won't find that story in the Washington Post headlines.
NASA projects continue to prove their contingency management strategies are effective. Despite the inevitable flaws in such enormously complex manufacturing designs as are required for off-world exploration and scientific investigation, most of these have been remedied by various ingenious means insuring the success of nearly all of NASA's missions and projects in recent years.
The worst recession since the 1930's appears to have bottomed, and sooner than many in government and Wall St. had predicted just 6 months ago. For all the slamming of the Federal Reserve and bailouts, this relatively sudden halt in the decline of our economy is welcomed by all save the most sour pussed losing their shirts betting on further decline. Even die hard critics of Obama's role in economic recovery just months ago, like Larry Kudlow of MSNBC fame, are now singing the praises of this bottoming out of the recession.
Infrastructure projects are underway in many communities across the country. I learned that the construction to widen the 2 lane, 60 mph state highway at the entrance to our 5 acre home, commenced as a result of April's infrastructure kick start economic plan. And many more will commence in 2010, further arresting the job losses which have caused such enormous angst for American workers. Soon, we won't have to play dodgem cars anymore upon exiting and entering our driveway. We will have a paved shoulder to pull onto to decelerate without risking being rear ended by an impatient tailgating jamoke trying to play kissy kiss with our bumper.
Our federal government employs more than 1.8 million civilian employees and is the nation's largest single employer excluding the Postal Service. The vast majority of those employees are good, hard working, honest, and dedicated employees serving the needs of the American people and our nation. From our military to the janitor working to clean offices in the Pentagon, our American government functions so well in most areas, that we are not barraged by headlines of incompetence on a daily basis. If that were only true of our elected politicians, what a difference it would make in public approval.
It is important, I believe, to recognize and acknowledge that 99.9% of those 1.8 million civil servants, serve America well. If that were not the case, we would as a public be so intently focused on the incompetence of our elected representatives, who tend to stand out in stark contrast to those invisible civil servants who carry out their duties and responsibilities with the same diligence and dedication to their job as any car manufacturer, salesperson at Home Depot, or manager at the local Starbucks.
We don't talk about those 1.8 million American government workers except as a nameless group, precisely because they do their jobs and they do them well. Our government is facing some unprecedented challenges and there is no question that America needs competent and responsible leadership in our policy making. And we can and should debate whether, or not, we are getting that from our elected leaders. But, America's government is still being modeled the world over by other nations in various ways and aspects, from China to India, and South Africa to the United Arab Emirates. This is something Americans should remain very proud of, even as we struggle to amend the flaws and weaknesses in our government policies and nation's future.
It is an enormous misjudgment to view the strengths and durability of our government through the lens of political debate and attacks by political partisans and media, always looking for another bout of "Let's you and him fight". In most of its departments and agencies and branches, our government serves us very well considering the enormous complexity of our society and demands Americans, from the wealthiest to the poorest, make of our government. One government will never be able to satisfy 330 million people. Let's keep that in mind when listening to the critics of our government, both foreign and domestic. Despite the recession, most Americans are better off than half of the people in the rest of the world.
There is enormous room for improvements in both our political and branches of government. But, there is also room for improvement within each of us as citizens of this great nation. Let's work on improving ourselves as citizens, which is in our power to do. To some degree, that effort will be rewarded with even better government than we already have going forward. A government elected by the people, can only be as strong and capable as the people, from which that government draws its employees and leaders.
No good can come from yelling and screaming at each other, and calling each other names. Great good can come from each of us striving to be better citizen role models for our children and the generations to come. Let's verify our information and facts, and debate them as rational adults. That is within the power of each of us Americans to do, today, tomorrow, and the years ahead. And it will be a valuable contribution to improving our political and governmental structures going forward. We only need to do our job as citizens, as well as the vast majority of our government civil servants do their job.
Posted by David R. Remer at August 20, 2009 10:52 AMAs a former State Highway department employee, while all is not perfect, I think these agencies do a remarkable job of producing some of the highest quality work at a reasonable price. Having worked in the private sector since that time, I can say that with some authority.
Private engineering firms are more expensive and produce lower quality work, in general.
I’m not so sure about a bottom bottom. We may be in a “W”. That would be appropriate given the guy who watched it roll in.
Posted by: gergle at August 20, 2009 01:25 PMThat would be appropriate given the guy who watched it roll in.
Yeah, it’s a shame that the Democrats didn’t have control of the country’s pursestrings while the recession got underway to do something about it…
Oh, wait a sec.
Posted by: Rhinehold at August 20, 2009 01:29 PMRhinehold and gergle, the recession stage was being set all the way back as far as the Clinton administration with the signing of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, to include Bush’s and the Republican Congress’ ‘ownership society’ initiative complete with artificially low interest rates and unregulated Credit Default Swaps and hedge fund markets.
It is entirely irresponsible to try to lay the blame for this recession at one party’s feet alone.
Both Republicans and Democrats had control of the country’s purse strings during the making of this recession.
Posted by: David R. Remer at August 20, 2009 01:39 PMDavid,
I agree, except the part about GLB. Factcheck doesn’t agree with it being a cause either, in fact many economists say it helped prevent the recession from being worse than it was…
Other than that, yes, artificially low interest rates and the Republican *AND* Democratic views of home ownership (don’t forget the Democrats were trying to get low income people into homes as well …) along with the people who owned homes and didn’t realize that refinancing to an ADJUSTABLE rate (thanks to the recommendations of the Fed Chairman) are the root causes…
Neither the Republicans NOR the Democrats are clean in this one, despite the temporary success by the left in painting it that way.
Posted by: Rhinehold at August 20, 2009 02:44 PMIt wasn’t just the repeal of Glass Steagal, it was the gutting of regulatory agencies and stacking the SEC that directly led to this fiasco. While I don’t dismiss Clinton’s and the Democrats responsibilities, this one does lay much more squarely on Bush’s doorstep. His Robber Barron administration led us straight into his neo-cleptocracy, that held reign until January.
As to the “many economists” of Rhinehold’s fantasy, I certainly hope he isn’t including the fringe Austrian School fellows, or Friedman’s discredited followers. Perhaps someone is channeling Ayn Rand and Atlas?
Great article David. It does too often slip all of our minds that we can point to plenty of examples of efficiently run government agencies. Of course the GOP will do whatever it can to cherry pick the worst examples, but why is it not being toted by the Dems that the government does so many good things, and does them efficiently, that benefit millions and millions and millions of Americans every day.
How many of those crusty old white evangelicals who hate our black president and know the government is going to hand us over to soviet china use E-mail? Probably not many. I’m sure they sit back and happily collect their social security checks, provided in a timely manner by the united states postal service!
The Post Office should probably close most local post offices, since the work is mostly done at the regional distribution centers, but people don’t want to lose their local office. I can’t remember the reason, but the machines that used to vend stamps were all removed from the post offices here.
The infrastructure projects that would interest me more would be road narrowing and street unpaving, as well a planting trees instead of the vast stretches of parking lot pavement that surround everything. And then there’s that highway that our friends who wear the tinfoil covered cowboy hats are worried about driving wheat in trucks to Mexico to ship to China instead of putting it right in the railroad cars that they already have sitting there to send it to the closest port. Here are some of those conspiratorial Canadians:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Veu-Cm7aHMw
On NASA, here are the Hubble Deep Field and Ultra Deep Field images:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgg2tpUVbXQ
Rhinehold said: “Factcheck doesn’t agree with it being a cause either, in fact many economists say it helped prevent the recession from being worse than it was…”
What others say, does not negate the FACT that the GLB Act opened the door to a host of TOO BIG TO FAIL banking, insurance, mortgage, and broker corporations, which the tax payers had to bail out to keep their jobs. Facts are facts. Opinions don’t change historical facts, unless one lives in Orwell’s 1984.
ohrealy, another way to turn around the postal services red ink, is to invert its cost structure. Charge more for all that junk mail which 95% of recipients toss immediately, and lower the first class costs for the more important and official forms of mail communication. Since the number of junk mail pieces vastly outnumber the first class pieces of mail, such an inversion would immediately put the Postal Service in the surplus. As the junk mail lessened in volume, the surplus would drop, but, with minor adjustments, a balance can be achieved wherein the postal service pays for itself, no more, and no less on average.
Posted by: David R. Remer at August 20, 2009 10:48 PMAmericans are nearly all aware of the Federal Government when they pay their income taxes, and many resent paying them. However, it doesn’t occur to most Americans that they are the beneficiary of the federal government when they watch a weather forecast (NOAA), purchase fresh and uncontaminated groceries (FDA), travel by highway or air (FAA & Highway Transportation Dept.), or make a deposit at their bank (FDIC, Federal Reserve, and U.S. Treasury).
I think it would be a worthy expense of federal tax dollars to advertise the Fed Agency that impacts any citizen’s interface with the Fed. Gov’t. for 1 year, just to make Americans aware of how very much benefit they derive and the many safeguards protecting them in exchange for their tax dollars.
Too many are just plain ignorant of how much they depend upon our federal government for, and how necessary those government functions are. This lack of appreciation for how much benefit they derive from their taxes is in part, underwriting this wave of anti-government sentiment.
Only an anarchist would knowingly desire to live in America without a federal government. It is true that our federal government is engaged in policies and administration of services that are bankrupting its treasury. And those need to be addressed. But, until Americans appreciate what is to be kept and is valuable in government services, they can’t objectively or rationally discern what aspects of policy and services can and should be pared back.
I would suggest that this appreciation has diminished in recent decades as a result of primary and secondary schools dropping the Civics course requirements and content which were nearly universal in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Posted by: David R. Remer at August 20, 2009 11:57 PMgergle,
I mentioned this was from Factcheck. I’ll even post a link this time:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/who_caused_the_economic_crisis.html
The bill in question is the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which was passed in 1999 and repealed portions of the Glass-Steagall Act, a piece of legislation from the era of the Great Depression that imposed a number of regulations on financial institutions. It’s true that Gramm authored the act, but what became law was a widely accepted bipartisan compromise. The measure passed the House 362 - 57, with 155 Democrats voting for the bill. The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 90 - 8. Among the Democrats voting for the bill: Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden. The bill was signed into law by President Clinton, a Democrat. If this bill really had “stripped the safeguards that would have protected us,” then both parties share the blame, not just “John McCain’s friend.”The truth is, however, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act had little if anything to do with the current crisis. In fact, economists on both sides of the political spectrum have suggested that the act has probably made the crisis less severe than it might otherwise have been.
Observers as diverse as former Clinton Treasury official and current Berkeley economist Brad DeLong and George Mason University’s Tyler Cowen, a libertarian, have praised Gramm-Leach-Bliley has having softened the crisis. The deregulation allowed Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase to acquire Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns. And Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have now converted themselves into unified banks to better ride out the storm. That idea is also endorsed by former President Clinton himself, who, in an interview with Maria Bartiromo published in the Sept. 24 issue of Business Week, said he had no regrets about signing the repeal of Glass-Steagall:Bill Clinton (Sept. 24): Indeed, one of the things that has helped stabilize the current situation as much as it has is the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, which was much smoother than it would have been if I hadn’t signed that bill. …You know, Phil Gramm and I disagreed on a lot of things, but he can’t possibly be wrong about everything. On the Glass-Steagall thing, like I said, if you could demonstrate to me that it was a mistake, I’d be glad to look at the evidence. But I can’t blame [the Republicans]. This wasn’t something they forced me into.
Nah, better to just try to ridicule me with suggestions of ‘debunked’ economists, as if Keynes wasn’t debunked 70 years ago when he said that the depression would return as soon as the deficit went down. A hint, he was wrong.
Posted by: Rhinehold at August 21, 2009 12:06 AMWhat others say, does not negate the FACT
Oh, ok, so we can ignore Factcheck.org when it disagrees with your political viewpoint?
Posted by: Rhinehold at August 21, 2009 12:09 AMNothing you quote Rhinehold, refutes the fact of the relationship between GLB and Too Big To Fail, which the GLB Act aided and abetted.
Stating that there were some positive benefits to the GLB Act, is rather redundant since so many voted for its passage. But, even Charlie Manson had some occasional flashes of human redemption in his youth.
Nothing you have said or quoted, refutes the relationship between GLB and Too Big to Fail, which has cost tax payers so very much in the last year, of necessity.
Posted by: David R. Remer at August 21, 2009 01:17 AMDavid,
Good point and one that kicks the Republicans of Yesteryear right in the teeth. For why it is easy to say the Government of “We the People” does not work, but they did not force the banks, insurance companies, and individuals to take extreme risk in the housing market even though they handed them the rope needed to hand themselve.
As far as the Post Office, I do believe the reason for keeping the system needs to be redefined. For why there are very good legal reasons for keeping the Institution open. I don’t think junk mail stands at the top of the list. For unless or until an American can come up with away to send/recieve a certified letter or make a copy right legal, I do believe that Congress has their hands tied due to reason we wil not discuss.
However, in speaking about what works good in America I have to take my hat off to Americas’ Community First Responders. For when a Mothers’ Kiss or a Doctors’ Hand is not enough, with one call to 911 most Americans can and do expect that one part of Americas’ Health and Medical Care Systems to work flawlessly each and every time.
Yet politically speaking, can you tell me of a Democrat or Republican talking about doing the same thing to the Insurance and Medical Industry other than that known to exist. For when you get to the bottom of the page, Do they want a little of something or a whole lot of nothing.
Because why I would love to hear what a Health and Medical Care System would look like at $30,000.00/yr. Being an American Layman Citizen who is not learned in Law or Criminal Justice under the Federal Common Sense Law of 1830/40 I’ll take the same Health and Medical Care Plan as the Office of the President of the United States of America.
For why it is important to take care of Medical Needs with an American Doctor, knowing that in Life even the strongest man on earth needs a helping hand when a Mothers’ Kiss just will not do. Let me just say that I do believe the Democrats or the Republicans are having trouble answering that question. Since, I do believe that through Community Services and Education that every citizen has access to a complete public medical library so they can be informed and the Unalienablr Right to Know and Understand the Wisdom of being Medically Self-Sufficient.”
Could America be watching the changing of the guards in the Democratic and Republican Political Parties? For in answer to your question on another post, I do believe that the American Conservatives can mount a good debate with the Democratic Party by splitting the Political Coin betwen the difference of a Trickledown Economy and a Trickle-Up Economy. Since I do feel the Children of the 21st Century will surprise My Brothers and Sisters of the 70’s.
For doesn’t Freedom begin at having the rope to do something, but being smart enough not to get hung by it? LOL
Posted by: Henry Schlatman at August 21, 2009 01:22 AMFactCheck is quoting Brad DeLong and Bill Clinton, who promoted passage of GLB, have a vested interest in defending against any blame for GLB. Duh!@ Didn’t occur to you?
And a great many Libertarians favor legislation that removes oversight and regulation on corporate enterprise which the GLB act did in overturning Glass Steagal.
FactCheck is referencing in the passage you provide, these person’s opinions. I don’t see where FactCheck, the organization, is making any definitive statements of empirical fact or evidence of the positive or negative effects of the GLB Act. You comments are pulling a Rohrschach, reading into ink blots what they want to read into them.
If you want to take Clinton Administration’s word for it that they did no wrong in their administration, that’s fine. Gullibility is not a crime. But, don’t offer their self-assessment as evidence, and expect the objective and critically evaluative persons out here to accept it without questioning their authority.
Posted by: David R. Remer at August 21, 2009 01:25 AMHenry said: “For doesn’t Freedom begin at having the rope to do something, but being smart enough not to get hung by it?”
It does indeed, Henry. The opposite is also often true. Loss of freedom at the hands of others begins with failure to be responsible for the actions of one’s own.
Posted by: David R. Remer at August 21, 2009 01:32 AMRhinehold,
As I said, I don’t dismiss the Dem’s role. David says it quite well.
Saying repeal of Glass Steagal is a good thing by allowing B of A to acquire Meryl IS quite laughable. Without repeal of Glass Steagal there wouldn’t be the need to buy out Meryl. Circular logic. Lessee, who’s money did B of A use to do this?
The dead assets are still with us. We have only side stepped the consequences of this dumb idea, not avoided them entirely.
Posted by: gergle at August 21, 2009 01:50 AMI don’t understand the different perceptions of reality that people have. When I talk to mail carriers, they say they are glad to have the bulk mail, especially since the first class mail is way down right now. They have established routes that they have to run, and the bulk mail is just filler anyway.
On Afghanistan, since we are ignoring the poppy fields, we might as well keep going over the mountains and try to occupy the area around Mt. Kailash and Lake Manasarovar in Tibet. It’s bringing the Chinese too much good luck:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcZiDg019ak
Posted by: ohrealy at August 21, 2009 02:05 PMDavid,
What you fail to realize is that history disproves you argument. Mass consolidation was already happening in the financial industry before GLB was passed in 1999. In fact, the only relationship GLB has to all of this is that it legalized the Citicorp-Traveler’s merger of Oct 1, 1998 (months before GLB’s conception). Even after GLB’s passage, investment banks were reluctant to engage in retail banking because they didn’t have the scale of depositor’s support needed for compliance. Likewise, retail banking avoided underwriting insurance because they were more profitable from financial products for insurable products (why underwrite the insurance for the house/car/boat/etc when it’s more profitable to underwrite the loan for the aforementioned). You might want to check your history. In fact, the mergers of 08 are the largest (and most aptly characterized by TBTF) undertaken in the GLB era, and give what little merit that your argument deserves.
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