Sequester Shenanigans
Mike Walker, Col. USMC (retired)
All,
When the Federal Government gets cut, please be ready for the same type of shenanigans that occurred in California.
The California State Government, like Washington DC, has a lot of agencies. When the recession hit, those agencies had their budgets cut and we had a lot of examples of profiles in courage and cowardice, of high ethical behavior and disgusting selfishness.
Expect the same from Washington DC.
How to spot the unethical lowlifes from the good people? Watch how they manage the cuts.
California agencies took different paths and, eventually, benefited or were crucified for how they enacted the cuts.
The bottom line is that governmental employees have one duty: Provide the best service possible to the citizens. That ethical and moral imperative is especially critical when budgets get trimmed.
In California, for example, the DMV prioritized what to cut and then cut everything they could that had the LEAST impact on the services that they provided to the citizens of the State. Nonetheless, once the cuts passed 20% they had to close offices as the furloughs hit. They published the dates in advance and got out ahead of the problem and earned a lot of sympathy and support from across the State (which is hard for the DMV to do).
They behaved like professionals who earned the public trust.
Then there are the immoral and unethical governmental employees who believe that citizens exist to serve them and meet their needs.
California also saw those folks at work as well.
The leadership of the California Department of Parks and Recreation decided to become “bureaucratic terrorists.” They closed down the most popular and widely used parks in the State resulting in an immediate backlash from the people. Everyone demanded that the legislators and governor reopen the parks.
The Park & Rec bubbas thought they had won but then came the questions from the lawmakers and the press. They discovered the truth: The bureaucrats had not focused the cuts to protect the parks, but to accomplish the exact opposite.
The “bureaucratic terrorists” deliberately avoided closing the parks that had the lowest attendance. They kept parks open during off-season so they could close them during the busy season. They intentionally kept them open during slow hours so they could close them during peak hours.
They did everything in their power to make the disruption far worse than it had to be.
It was a disgusting abuse of governmental power.
Every governmental agency can and must prioritize their operations (Park & Rec certainly did for all the wrong reasons) and start cutting the least important things first.
Ethical governmental agencies will be able to say: "Here is what we cut first..." then "after that, we had to cut..." and finally "Now we have no choice but to cut these really important operations..."
Governmental agencies, especially the Defense Department, cannot afford to take the road of the "bureaucratic terrorists."
It will be a Pyrrhic victory where you lose your credibility, alienate your allies and strengthen your enemies who want to cut spending even further.
Forewarned is forearmed. Protect the heroes and fire the bums.
Mike
