To the Editor:
The Swamp empire strikes back. If you can read what’s-er-names’, you can read this.
Chapter I
The Swamp. What is it? First, it is the entire senior technical, supervisory and management personnel of the Federal Government: GS 10/11 and up. They are mostly corrupt, lazy, arrogant, power-mad slugs who hide behind perversions of the Civil Service Act and Unions. It is the system of lobbyists, election funding, bribes, kick-backs and payoffs (Trump’s proposals adequately address these). I address the first below.
How did the swamp happen? Like any swamp stuff comes in, stays in and rots. Lifetime jobs, no accountability, no penalties and, left to themselves, a few rotten apples rot the whole barrel. A swamp can be cleansed by draining.
I worked in the government workplace as a contract worker for 42 years all but the last nine of 12 years of my career. I watched the rot spread and become overwhelming. When new stuff comes in, the old stuff corrupts it.
The most dangerous is the suddenly honest. It cannot be predicted when someone finally reaches intolerance to corruption. The system protects itself by making sure all are corrupted, that each new person has been involved in illegal activities. Each person is controlled by the instances of personal corruption that can be used to discredit, silence and remove. I have seen such. More than once, in five of my last eight years in the government workplace, I tried transfers, changed companies, agencies, but it became obvious that all organizations are the same. Yes. I tucked my tail between my legs and got out of Dodge. Alive. Examples are in Chapter II
There is a cure, I believe. Organizations can be eliminated, defunded. This happened during the Truman presidency. Insufficient. The only solution is to limit, severely, the longevity of government workers. This would have several positive effects, for the worker, for the organization and for the country. The worker gets experience, a good salary and benefits and a retirement credit. Then be in demand in the private economy. An experienced worker can come in, at an excellent government salary, accumulate an excellent retirement package, contribute private economy skill sets. The organization is cleansed by exchange before it becomes corrupt. The country gets an experienced contributor. Quality in the public workplace is improved because each worker knows it will have to live in the country it creates. 10 year max for those GS 13 and up. No chance to work as a contractor. Get caught, you lose all government credits, and the next level mgr gets fired.
Remove a high percent of current workers each year for the next four years, until they are ALL gone. No chance to work as a contractor. Give them a six-year credit toward retirement. Yes, it’s a shame that the few really good people that make things work, at all, will be hurt. My guess is that they will be happy that things are on the way to improvement. We see the results: the whole swamp turns against the first outsider since Andrew (by God) Jackson. If you’re not from Tennessee, you won’t understand that.
Charlie Thompson
Village of Amelia
