Originally published at: Texas lawmaker Ronny Candyman Jackson says Trump plans to "purge" the government by 25% | Boing Boing
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So making about 650,000 instantly unemployed (if you include the DOD). That would be a great boost to the economy.
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If he as gonna do it, why didn’t he already do it? I’m always amazed by the bullshit people believe.
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“Vote for this guy who will cause a massive spike in unemployment, and generate tens of thousands of lawsuits that will cost taxpayers millions of dollars!”
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Ooh, ooh, tell me more!
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He was too busy locking up Hillary and firing Fauci.
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Let’s start with Congress payroll.
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TBH I’m not convinced that cutting congressional salaries would reduce corruption since that would likely make them even more dependent on lobbyists and self-dealing than they are already. The most obscenely wealthy people in the legislature didn’t get that way just by cashing their government paychecks.
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This was the one of the reasons why the Chartists asked that politicians get paid for doing their jobs. The other main reason was so that working class people could become politicians without worrying about having enough money.
They also wanted yearly parliamentary elections to make it hard for politicians to be bought. I don’t think they could have envisioned the world today. Monthly elections probably wouldn’t be enough to stop lobbyists now.
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A problem we see playing out in real time today.
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What he doesn’t tell you is that after Trump’s laid off 25% of government employees, he’s going to hire twice as many … but these ones will be selected for “reliability”, i.e. unquestioning loyalty to the MAGA cause.
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Plus, it would ensure that only the wealthy elite could become legislators. All you have to do is look at state houses where they get paid either a very minimal salary or in some cases, nothing but a per diem, and look at the make up of those houses, and who ends up in those seats.
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In was in process during his last year, right up until he left.
Federal workers have very strong employment rules. While the top of agencies are political appointees setting the agency direction, the workers have significant protection from political whims. This protects from a system of patronage where all the workers are beholden to the political appointment instead of being professionals. While still allowing overall direction to be implementing the policy of the executive branch. He was in the process of reclassifying large chunks of the professional workforce to remove those protections. Making them all subject to political whims and able to fire.
Beyond that, he did successfully trash leadership and make working for them so bad in many institutions that tons of professions left the agencies. If you cannot fire them, make it miserable so they’ll quit.
For instance, the CDC hasn’t been in great shape for a long time. However, during his term, quality and conditions of leadership were so bad that lots of professions beneath them all left too. Unfortunately, the current guy hasn’t done that much to recover from this drain. Likely a combination of slow government hiring practices and so many things being recovered that they cannot all be done at once. Still the CDC is in bad shape and not nearly as capable as it should be because of that. I’m sure other agencies are in the same situation too.
If re-elected, turning all government jobs into a patronage feudal system where employees are loyal to him first and the agency they work for a distant second feels completely on brand.
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Get back to me when they’ve purged 100% of trump.
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Ah, so “original intent,” then?
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The argument was always that men of wealth would be able to be more neutral and would not bend the state into their interest. That proved to be bullshit by the 1820s, when wealthy southern planters did precisely that. It’s not less true today in the age of vast wealth and increasing inequality. They have rigged the system in favor of themselves yet again, which only works against them in the long run. People can only stand so much of a boot on their neck.
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“Ronny Candyman Jackson”?
So a character from a horror film or a three-name assassin?
Choices, choices…
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Jackson: “Trump has told me that when he gets back in he’s going to get rid of 25% of the bureaucracy in every single department across the board.”
Right after Trump drains the swamp?
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And more than one or two people get to congress with no appreciable financial security. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was waiting tables to help support her family before she ran for office. Plenty of people run for office who, if they win would have to quit there jobs and and would not be able to support themselves. You need to get paid either by the government or someone else. We don’t need to tilt the scale more in favor of only massively wealthy people running for office, we have quite enough of that already.
I’d prefer: get elected to congress and you get paid $1M/year for life, but any existing investments you have are required to be managed by a blind trust and you can never be paid by anyone ever again.
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