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When we elect candidates to represent us in D.C., we expect them to be in charge of the government. They are elected because the majority of the American people believe they represent the best ideas for the betterment of citizens. While we wish that to be true, we recognize that those we elect have less to do with the direction of our future than we would like. For as long as I can remember there has been a layer of unelected bureaucrats, “lifers”, who stand between our elected representatives and the agendas we send them to D.C. to accomplish. The inmates are indeed in charge of the asylum.

Some of this nonsense is a direct result of the laziness and cowardice of Congress and past Presidents. They have been all too happy to pass bills that create skeleton laws. They then pass it to the “lifers” who add the organs, muscle, and flesh, to the skeleton. Congress is too lazy to work hand in glove with bureaucrats to ensure the final product is what they intended for their constituents. Too often the finished product only vaguely resembles what the lawmakers had in mind. Better yet, when the final legislation proves to be unpopular, they can lay the blame on those who answer to nobody. It is a win-win situation for cowards.

Then, in 2016, a nonpolitician by the name of Donald Trump was elected President. He immediately upset the old “if you want to get along you have to go along” applecart. Trump came from the corporate sector where there is no place for people who refuse to pull their own weight. When he was elected, he knew there would be opposition from Democrats. Having said that, I think he may have been surprised at how many of the opposition would purposefully hurt their constituents to further their careers. In his quest to Make America Great Again, he couldn’t have imagined the partisan fervor brought forth by piss ant local judges. (That is fodder for a future blog). Those are but a couple of the headwinds that Trump has faced in his first 8 months of his second term.

No person can be an effective leader if they are not able to control the work being done by their employees. That is true of every organization, especially as the organization grows in size. It is critical that the President of the United States is able to direct the activities of those who fall directly under them in the organization chart. Trump ’45’ learned the hard way. When he fired FBI Director, James Comey, Democrats and the mainstream media went apoplectic. That Comey has proven to be a pathetic sleaze bag is irrelevant. Had he been an angel but refused to follow the directions of his boss would be enough for his dismissal from employment everywhere except in the government.

President Trump agrees with those of us who think we need to stop asking which Americans should pay more in taxes and start asking a more cogent question. What is the government doing with the taxes it is currently confiscating. On the first day in his second term, he appointed Elon Musk to head up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE found hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse, in the U.S. Agency for International Development. That ultimately led to the shuttering of the Agency. The Progressive Left (PL)protested, then sued. (They lost.) The Supreme Court has ruled that the President has the authority to decide personnel issues in the Executive Branch of our government.

In another effort to further reduce spending, Trump offered a very generous early retirement package to millions of government employees. Approximately 135,000 employees accepted the buyout package. Since he took office in January, Trump has reduced the federal workforce by around 200,000 people. That equates to tens of billions of dollars in saved salaries, health care, and retirement costs now and in the future. Government unions, in contemplation of losing tens of millions of dollars in dues revenue sued to stop the program. (They lost.)

No President or CEO of any organization could execute their policies if they didn’t have the authority to fire those managers who refuse to implement them, or are incapable of doing so. Bureaucrats who have historically enjoyed the comfort of lifetime employment simply ignored Presidents whose policies they didn’t like. You can do that when you feel untouchable. That changed when Trump became President. He fired the head of the CDC when it became clear their views were incompatible. After years of bad math, monthly downward revisions in the jobs report, and plain incompetence, he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He recently fired a member of the Federal Reserve, the Agency responsible for creating rules for, and deciding interest rates on, home mortgages. She allegedly filed fraudulent mortgage documents. In the past, the failings of bureaucrats were routinely ignored. They were typically reassigned or allowed to retire with full benefits. These are options that are not usually available to those in the private sector.

There may be hundreds of lawsuits that have been brought in District or Courts of Appeal against Trump’s Executive Orders. They sued when he started mass deportations of illegal aliens. They sued when he deported a single gangbanger and wife beater in Maryland. They sued etc., etc., etc. Many of the cases have made it to the Supreme Court. (Many more are on the way there). In most of those cases the SCOTUS has overturned local judges, or told them they don’t have jurisdiction to take the cases. In some instances, these little piss ant judges have ignored the High Court and continue to take cases. (They apparently think they have the authority to rule the country from their unelected local court. A lawyer friend of mine calls it “robitis”). The majority of the cases will result in a waste of time and money. But they do serve to slow down the policies Trump is trying to get done for the American people.

For our country to operate the way the Founding Fathers designed, Trump must be successful in gaining control of the bureaucracy. If those we elect are subordinate to lifetime unelected employees who write and enforce our laws, We the People will have no say in the direction of our country. Every American who treasures their freedom should be supporting President Trump in his effort to make the government smaller. We should support his efforts to put the responsibility of writing and enforcing laws back in the hands of the representatives who are elected by the people, and away from those who currently answer to nobody.

Thank you for taking the time to read my latest thoughts. Bob

P.S. Next week’s blog will be about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.