THE “PANDEMIC” IS ONLY ONE “DAMAGE CONTROL” ISSUE THAT TRUMP IS LEAVING BIDEN

 

…Office of Management & Budget: Just one US Department that President Trump is trying to destroy

 

There are multiple government departments that Trump is attempting a purge

 

So, just how much damage can Donald Trump do to the country as he exits the White House?  Well the total damage is much larger than anyone has admitted on either side of the politics.

As one reporter put it this way:  “Again and again, outgoing Trump officials have demonstrated their intention to “salt the earth” as they leave.”

And just what does that mean?  It means to do as much destruction as possible that can’t be easily overturned.  And Trump’s people have been excellent at what they have done so far in many of the critical departments in the US Government.

For instance, they’ve tried to jam through Senate confirmations of partisan cranks while planting regulatory time-bombs scheduled to detonate after President Trump leaves office. They’ve drawn back funding for emergency lending programs, and then they placed that money out of reach of the next treasury secretary.  After years of swelling the nation’s federal deficits, they’ve now suddenly remembered their Republican negative attitude to the nation’s debt. And while they are doing this, they are continuing to sow mistrust in the integrity of our US elections.

The latest sign of sabotage has flown totally under the radar:  Trump has been quietly dismantling the federal civil service departments, and possibly laying the groundwork for a massive, government-wide purge.  All of this, on his way out the door.

Trump signed a technical-sounding executive order in October that invented a new category of government employees, called “Schedule F.”  These are for career civil servants whose jobs include “policymaking”.  The order said they should be reclassified under “Schedule F”.  This is a designation that would strip them of long-held civil service protections and it would allow them to be fired with little demonstrated cause or recourse.

This includes, presumably, for showing insufficient loyalty to Trump.  A classic Trump approach to all government policy making.

It is agreed that the current system is by no means perfect. But it needs reasonable management reforms, not more political interference. This order effectively transforms large chunks of the merit-based, expertise-driven, nonpartisan civil service, into political appointees who work at the mercy of the president.  Already, the US government has more political appointees (4,000) than does any other democracy in the world.  This feature predisposes our government to support biased management and cronyism.  This Trump-restructuring would make things much worse, reinstating the same sort of privileged-employee driven, ”spoils” system that Congress abolished in the 1880s.  This system almost ruined the US Government prior to the massive reforms in the late 1800’s.

Trump gave all the heads of federal agencies 90 days, that is, until Jan. 19, and that just happens to be the inauguration eve.  This is to review their personnel rosters and decide which roles should be listed as “Schedule F”.  It wasn’t clear how many civil servants will get re-classified….?

Last week, a memo leaked from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The OMB director has already proposed re-classifying 88% of his agency’s workforce, or 425 employees, under Schedule F.  The Office of Personnel and Management (OPM) is reportedly fast-tracking its re-classification efforts as well.

These are very bad signs. The OMB reaches across nearly every government function, given its involvement in setting budgets and vetting regulations for other agencies. Had Trump won a second term, he presumably would have used this reclassification to clear out any “distrusted members” of Trump’s bogus “deep state.”  Already, Trump has been working to politicize, traditionally independent agencies, including inserting political appointees into senior civil service jobs.  Jobs, for which the new appointees are not qualified.

Now that he’s lost the election, it’s reasonable to wonder if Trump simply plans to fire and not replace as many career experts as possible.  This would leave Biden with a hollowed-out government, totally unable to perform even its most basic functions.

In other words, Trump would be responsible for sponsoring a massive, “government purge”.

If that sounds alarmist, you must recall that Trump has engaged in similar government purges before, of both political appointees and career servants.  These were positions whom Congress had intended to be shielded from such retaliation. This has happened for the last four years under Trump’s idea of “draining the swamp.”

For example, take the Economic Research Service.  This is a small, independent statistical agency within the Agriculture Department that has published research on food stamps, climate change, tariffs and other topics that Trump appointees found politically inconvenient.  Last year the agency was abruptly relocated a thousand miles away from where it had been.  About three-quarters of the affected employees decided to quit, rather than uproot their families.  Certainly, this is one way to silence independent researchers.

Trump has ordered agencies to disband hundreds of technical advisory councils, including, during a pandemic, the advisory committee to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  And even without formal firings, Trump officials have ordered a mass exodus of scientists, foreign affairs specialists, immigration officials, and other supposed Trump’s so called “deep staters” throughout the government.

A government employees union has challenged some of these “Schedule F” executive orders in US courts, saying it violates statutes regarding civil service protections.  Separately, Democratic lawmakers have tried to block it.

It is possible that the incoming Biden administration could reverse Trump’s executive order and try to rehire civil servants fired under it.  But in the meantime, a chill is running through the ranks of the civil service.  Workers who should be focusing on the country’s health or economic crisis.  They are instead worried about their own job security, and whether it’s still safe to speak truth to power.

Trump is “crashing the car before turning back the keys,” observes Max Stier, the president and chief executive of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service.

“Can you simply fix the car? Perhaps, but first, the people will get hurt in the crash, including the public and the public servants.  Second, you can’t use the car while it is getting fixed.  And third, it’s not clear the car will ever drive as it did before.”

That is exactly what Donald Trump is trying to achieve..

This is just one of the things that the Biden administration will be dealing with on day-one. 

Thank you President Trump.

Copyright G. Ater 2020