Government Salaries - High Pay, Low Performance

Consider some of the known government screw ups that have recently made the headlines:

- While the financial markets and U.S. economy were imploding, dozens of employees, including top officials, at the government watchdog organization, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), were apparently preoccupied during business hours using their government issued computers to surf the Internet in order to download and view pornography.
- According to the Intelligence report of Parade Magazine on May 16, 2010, the General Accounting Office (GAO) submitted twenty bogus product designs to the Department of Energy (DOE) in order to see if the DOE would certify them as energy efficient. Certification as energy efficient gets a product the coveted Energy Star designation, allowing the company receiving the designation to market their products as energy efficient. One of the designs was billed as a room air cleaner and the design consisted of a feather duster taped to a space heater. Fifteen of the fake designs, including this one, received an Energy Star label.
- According to an article in The Week magazine from the May 21, 2010 issue, Mexico's biggest drug cartel had access to top secret United States drug enforcement information. When a top drug cartel member was apprehended, police found the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration papers. Apparently the drug cartels have infiltrated U.S. drug interdiction efforts via corruption by Mexican officials.
- And last, but certainly not, least, we are starting to find out how not only BP but several government agencies are to blame for the massive oil slick coming out of the runaway BP well. According to an article by Justin Pritchard of the Associated Press (AP):

• The Federal Minerals Management Service conducted at least sixteen fewer inspections of the runaway BP drilling rig than it should have.
• Other AP investigations have shown that the rig "was allowed to operate without certain safety documents required by the Minerals Management Service for the exact disaster scenario that occurred."
• The cutoff valve that failed has failed numerous times on other rigs since the time that regulators loosened their standards for the valve.
• The Mineral Management Services organization has suspiciously changed the inspection visit numbers related to the BP rig several times over the past month.
• Last year the Mineral Management Services organization cited the runaway BP rig "as an industry model for safety."

- In previous posts we have already covered, in extensive detail, the incompetence's of the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC, Housing and Urban Development, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Senate committees on housing and banking, House of Representatives committees on housing and banking, Federal Housing Authority, and other government agencies for their pitiful performance before and after the banking and housing crash.

Now, consider this low level of performance relative to some numbers that were published in the Tampa Tribune on May 16, 2010:

• The number of Federal employees taking home more than $100,000 in annual salary rose from 14% of the employee base to 19% in just 18 months.
• In 80% of professions where there is both a private industry and Federal government equivalent, the Federal government employee makes more money.
• The average value of benefits for a Federal employee is almost $41,000 while it is only $9,882 for a private industry worker.

Thus, not only are we getting far below satisfactory performance from our government agencies, we are paying them top, top dollars for this horrid performance. Government programs do not deliver what they are supposed to do, government agencies do not even follow their own processes and procedures, classified information leaks out easily, and the biggest economic crisis in eighty years goes undetected until it hits everyone in the face but we still pay top dollar for this incompetence.

As always, nobody in the political class is taking any responsibility for the bad performance. Obama and members of Congress are blaming the government workers involved in the oil slick in the Gulf, much like they do with other government shortcomings, it is never their fault.

"Love My Country, Loathe My Government" woulds address both of these issues. Step 1 would require a ground up, zero based approach to completely reviewing and fixing how government operations function, firing those that do not know how to serve their masters, the American taxpayer. Step 34 would hold those Congressional committee members responsible for such poor government performance and would remove them from their committee posts for severe sub par performances. For example, anyone sitting on the committees that oversaw the Minerals Management Service could possibly be removed for overseeing an agency that utterly failed in the case of the BP disaster.

It is only when people start losing their jobs will there be accountability driven down to all government employees. They are making enough money, accountability should finally become part of their job description.

Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.