Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Wow. Ok.


All administrations leave mid-level people in place. They aren’t political appointees. The old patronage system went out what, more than a century ago? And not just because it was destructive to a functioning government, but because Presidents spent so much of their time filling vacant spots, that they had little time to actually lead the country. And that was in the old times when the federal government was much, much smaller.

Wow.  Ok.  

Are you familiar with Schedule F, (as it relates to career civil servants)which Trump put in place late during his first term, and Biden rescinded in his first few days?

Kindly, I think we're going to see if our system's checks and balances can endure our government being a cartoon.  

I’m familiar with the idea that Trump wants a civil service full of sycophants. Good luck with a functioning federal government.

FWIW the wow, ok was directed at your view of Kennedy. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Perhaps.   I guess we will see.  Then again, maybe Trump just wants to avoid having government employees in key roles that are not working against him as hard as they can.  Seems- through his own inexperience- he had that in spades last go round.  

All administrations leave mid-level people in place. They aren’t political appointees. The old patronage system went out what, more than a century ago? And not just because it was destructive to a functioning government, but because Presidents spent so much of their time filling vacant spots, that they had little time to actually lead the country. And that was in the old times when the federal government was much, much smaller.

This is all true.  I do think government is "bloated" with folks who don't really "work".  I don't know how to separate that chaff from the wheat.  I personally had a pointless job in industry, at a much smaller company, and I was replaced with TWO people, one of whom got promoted to fill the slot.  If a company is so bloated (and I was far from unique), government will be as well, folks who don't contribute to getting anything useful done.  But, usually, attempts to ferret those out result in cutting bone.

There is some promise to cut $2 bllion, which I think is clearly impossible, maybe they could cut a tenth of that, maybe.  One could cut two departments I find mostly usefless, enetgy and education, but they still have useful programs one probably should keep, like maintaining our nuclear weapons stockpiles.  And of course most of this requires Congress to act.  So, I'll watch, without expecting all that much in reality.

Though I heard on TV this morning that 59% of government employees in DC now work from home.  Seems excessive one way or the other.  Only way to get rid of the typical federal employee is to eliminate the position.

I think it is broadly the case.

Way back, I got to follow around one of our VPs for a day.  It was exhausting, meeting after meeting, people talking to him.  I realized a VP is really more of a cheerleader than decision maker.  People present him stuff where only one decision is plausible, they leave out anything contrary to that for the most part.  So, he pats them on the back and says "Great job, carry on" and they leave, all happy.  

I really think this is true for every President, maybe he sort of sets out some broad policy objectives, at times, and relies on his underlings to go execute them, but even his broad policies can be massaged by the underlings at times.  They nominate over 4000 appointees, obviously he would know of maybe 50 of them, the rest are chosen for him.  He says he wants to cut taxes, well, folks in Congress come up with the plan, really staffers in Congress, and get something passed, usually with all sorts of special interest items included.

This stuff is, in my view, WAY to complicated for any single individual to have more than a passing influence over some large item in a bill.

I still have some side effects from the experimental "vaccine" we were forced to take.