Bureaucrats

[colmurph]

It seems to me that all the bickering going on is a waste of time. The problems with the Board of Veterans Appeals, the VA etc. can be pretty much blamed on the bureaucrats who are running the various agencies. I don't for a moment think that Bush has picked up a phone and called the VA and told them to slow down the processing time and I don't think that happened when Clinton was in office either. Too much is attributed to Presidents. THEY DO NOT MICROMANAGE THE GOVERNMENT. The real culpability rests with the bureaucrats who have been entrenched in the various agencies for their entire working life. They are the ones who make the day to day decisions that affect our lives, our health, our tax burden. Politicians come and go every 4 years but the bureaucrats stay in power from administration to administration. I can think of one man who stayed in power for over 40 years and had more real power than any President ever had..........J. Edgar Hoover. Most Presidents were terrified of him.
The President has the power to appoint the various department heads like the Secretary of The Treasury, but under the Treasury you have Customs & Border Protection which has an appointed Commissioner and a buracrat for an assistant Commissioner. Generally the Commisioner of Customs doesn't have a clue about the day to day operations of Customs.......he's just a figurhead. I would suppose all the other government agencies are the same. So basically, the guys who really "RUN" this country are bureaucrats who have worked in their respective agencies for a long time and who are not replaced every time there is an administration change. That might not be a good thing as they certainly do not follow the Presidents wishes and seem to go on doing things the way their predecessor did them. When I worked for Customs in the 70's and 80's I noticed that every Port Director had his own way of interpreting Customs Laws and Regulations so that a ship going from Phila. to NYC had the experience of going into a different country because of the difference in the respective Port Directors way of dealing with the laws. Now that I am in the Civilian Side of the Maritime Industry I still see regional differences on how the laws are applied.
The bottom line is....I don't think it matters what Political party holds power or who occupies the White House. The Burocracy will continue to "Run the Country" the way they see fit to.

[Seascamp]

I went to the VA about seven years ago to get the orthopedic nuts, bolts, screws and wires in my left arm tightened up. One thought sums up that entire act; indifference coupled with incompetence were the featured components of the main event and nearly a religion.
There were many VA employees trying to do the right thing but the ever-present bureaucratic way of things tends to squash that effort like a nasty, bothersome insect. Oh, the same outfit had to chop off a leg of a family member because someone screwed up a treatment program and literally cooked his leg to a well-done state. So much for a healthy, active WWII Ranger Vet that was having a problem with a knee wounded long ago.

So yes, ya drill down a few meters through the political turf and bingo, ya hit steel-hard bedrock and even a diamond tip rock drill isn?t going to so much as scratch that surface, no way. Good old J. Edgar ruled his Kingdom with an Iron Fist; actually with a pen/ green ink plus his secret dirt files, (sans his own pink tutu files, of course). And the FBI has to be totally reborn anew just to get JEH behind them. The unwritten first rule of rules is that the rules are always interpreted in the favor of the local bureaucrat Monarch, no exceptions.

My guess is that the highest energy bureaucrat activity is to figure out how to circumvent the elected politicos and make sure they don?t rock the boat too much. At the end of the day, the well-meaning employees just have to do the best they can without any meaningful direction aside from guard the Monarch and the toady guards around the Monarch.

Scamp

[colmurph]

Maybe we should change the brueaucrats with the administration.
It seems to me that continuing the way we do, you could compare it now with changing a baby's diapers without washing them. We keep putting on the same $hitty diaper from the day before so nothing has really changed.

Seven years ago Clinton was in power....do you think that clinton picked up the phone and told the VA to be indifferent to Seascamp? I don't. I think it's the "Swamp of Bureaucracy". It's really a shame when well meaning government employees are stifled by the brueaucrat in charge, and are afraid to make waves because of the possibility of having their job transferred to some spot halfway across the country in retaliation. I've seen it done. Customs Patrol officers who made waves in Philly and NYC were transferred to San Ysidro, California ("Sandy Skid-Row")

[reconeil]

Not much on can add to the absurdity of it all.

Still, one wishes that those in authority would take such sound logic to heart and/or QUITE DIFFERENTLY follow through on such.
Hey,...just wishful thinking.

Neil :d: :b:

P.S. Well stated, short, sweet and sans political bull and/or honest.

[colmurph]

My point of all this is not to put too much blame on the Congress or the President. It's the system that is broken when the same old bureaucrats are allowed to do their "Empire Building".

[SuperScout]

Congratulations one and all for airing some of the dirtiest laundry in the land, the stinky shorts of bureaucrats who continually screw up our lives, individually and collectively. The solution is not to throw out the bums with a new administration, but a totally new paradigm, simply throwing out the bureaucracy and the bureau period. There are so many federal (and state) agencies and functions that could be administered by private industry, and the VA is just one of them.

Here's a personal story: back in early January, I was given another appointment at the Audie Murphy VA Hospital in San Antonio for an MRI on my knee. An earlier appointment in December had to be re-scheduled, due to an equipment failure or breakdown; I was notified of this cancellation on the trip to San Antonio, do had to turn around and wait for another appointment when they got their equipment fixed. So I finally had the MRI done, but thought it strange while prone in the machine that I had to wear earphones to protect my ears from the noise. Obviously, they were using the most antiquated machinery known to man. As I wrote in an earlier report of this trip to SA, the halls and floors of the hospital were filthy, the staff personnel were only there for me to pay obeisance to, and the equipment would probably be discarded in Afghanistan. Now, some two months later, I haven't heard from the VA one way or the other concerning my MRI. And as colmurph has so eloquently posted earlier, it is not the fault of either Clinton or Bush. It is, however, the fault of a completely broken system, a sacred cow that should have been led off to the philosophical slaughterhouse long ago. For anyone to squat and whine about the benefits or lack thereof, without realizing the source of the problem, is simply to continue to curse the darkness. There's really not enough money in the entire federal budget to fix the problem of the VA.

Also in January, I had a complete checkup with my personal physician, my Tri-Care for Life provider, a civilian doctor, BTW. All the bloodwork and associated stuff was completed in one day, the same day as the poking-and-coughing routine of which we are all so fond and familiar! Within two days, the doctor's office called me and said all tests were normal, except the mental portion, which was superior; personality test came back negative.

BOTTOM LINE: VA doctors, technicians, papershufflers, and janitors are all more concerned with job security, could probably give an excrement less about providing care, much less good care to the deserving. The solution is not to change the bureaucrats within a bureaucracy, but to do major surgery on the entire ethos of the problem in order to find the remedy. Many of the people at VA clinics are too incompetent to survive in the private sector, and wallow in the trough of a guaranteed paycheck, irrespective of the quality of their work output. In private enterprise, the incompetent don't survive, a simple law of economic survival. Rather than force a veteran to drive 125 miles round trip, wouldn't it make more sense to send him to a local civilian doctor for the treatment he requires? Rather than have the deserving vet wait for two months for a report, why not have him go to his local civilian doctor, and then find out the news within days?

The Social Security System is another sacred cow long overdue for the slaughterhouse. Only now is the grim news arriving at Capital Hill that due to all the payments to drunks, dope addicts, and other none deserving cretins, there's a possibility of lower benefits or higher taxes looming on the horizon. The SSS may have been a solution to a problem that existed in the 1930's, but in case anybody's curious, this is the 21st century now, and the actuarial imbalance and insanity of the SSS needs to be corrected.
And just as private medical care would serve the military veteran better, so too would a privatized version of SS serve the retired citizenry.

[reconeil]

Plus, and regarding privatization, and if one can remember,...the ironic truths are that both Social Security and Veterans Care were in large part actually and originially privatized.

1. Social Security was set-up initially as an equally contributed to by employee and employer 401K for The Employees Retirement. Was never meant to be lumped-together into The General Fund, to be toyed with perpetually by politicos, and as if Tax Revenues.

2. Outpatient Veteran Care (both Best Specialists available and RXs) were taken care of by civilian doctors and pharmacists locally and/or statewide.

Any Veteran complaints and/or horror stories, and even after our largest disabling of Veterans conflict (re. WWII), were actually quite minimal,...especially in comparison to TODAY.

Neil

[Seascamp]

A gigantic clue is presented when Corporations or individuals have to hire consultants and/or lawyers to talk to a fed agency or, visa versa, a fed agency has to hire a consultant, lawyer and/or publicists to talk to a Corporation, individual or the public. A while back the US Postal Service was having a flap about some damn thing or another, and sure as heck, they hired a honey-voiced, smiley-faced publicist to assure the public, via a TV camera, that we?re all in good hands, how funny (as in funny peculiarly then ?splat?, oops, add a few cents to the cost of a stamp). Then that was followed up by, oops, we didn?t need to increase the cost of a stamp after all, we made an accounting error, but we ain?t taking back the increase in postage. That bit of bureaucracy deserves the Darwin award for excellence in mission drift and loss of keel, rudder and helm.

Another huge clue comes in the form of what I know as malicious compliance. This occurs when budget constraints are imposed and the very first thing cut is quality of service, guaranteed. Never mind outrageous G&A expenses and admisistrivia costs that would tube most private businesses. At the end of the day, costs go up, service quality goes down, the bureaucrat Monarch has the requisite tizzy fit, complainers are duly admonished and punished and the world is once more at bureaucrat equilibrium.

Credit where credit is due. I work with OSHA and the EPA a lot and they can be extremely helpful and remain focused, more so with OSHA than the EPA, but they both are very responsive and are willing to share valuable information and teach best practices. Good stuff for sure, at least in my experience. But here we see the flip side where politicos make every effort to turn these agencies into jack booted-nightstick thugs/malicious obstructionists? that are hell bent for election to shut down some enterprise that doesn?t please some political agenda. It?s forced mission drift in this instance and safety, protection and public education go out the window in favor of placating some loud mouth politico driving some stupid special interest. Speaking of which, I have witnessed one Fed agency absolutely blow another Fed agency clean out of the water over jurisdictional/politico ego issues and all the while ?Rome? did burn to the ground, literally.

Anyway, rational common sense indicates that anyone who claims that some Candidate ?Fidel Armindingo? is going to Washington and right all wrongs and change the bureaucrat Monarch ethic has either bought a line of crap as wide as the Mississippi, or needs to check into a detox facility, or needs the Candy Striper to bring the cocktail needle, real quick, lest they injure themselves.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if it weren?t for bureaucrats our tools wouldn?t rust.

Scamp

[MORTARDUDE]

Since I am one of the "bureaucrats" ( and will be for another 3 1/2 weeks ) I will give my views on the subject. Our salaries and duties are a direct result of the money that is voted ( or not voted ) by the Congress for each agency. The Congress also passes the rules and regulations that each agency has to make sure are followed. The reason the Civil Service Act was passed over a century ago, was simply because when the President was elected the employees went with him. The Civil Service Retirement System ( pensions ) was abolished in 1984 and anyone hired since then has a truly portable retirement plan ( FERS ), unlike the CSRS. Having been a member of said "bureacracy" ( IRS ) for 32 years and the US Army for 2 years..Here is what I think.

1) Americans have to really want a change. I do not see it now.
2) With 76,000,000 Americans not even registered to vote where is the outrage ? There is none.
3) Until there is a some kind of turnover in Congress nothing will change.
4) Most "bureaucrats" are just hard working folks like me and my father ( Water plant operator at the Naval Air Sation from 1944 - 1976, 3 1/2 yrs in the US Army, 4 years with TVA ) who have to deal with the laws and regulations passed by Congress.
5) Many civil service jobs are now being contracted out to private industry ( A-76 )..while this may seem like it is saving money on paper, the reality is that it usually costs more and there is less efficiency.

These are just my views. Bureaucrats are an easy target, but focus on the Congress who are the ones who make the laws, pass them and ( as in the case of the VA ), fail to make enough funds available to do the job right !!

All IMHO,

Larry

[colmurph]

Larry, we're not talking about GS-12's and below here....were talking about the GS 15's and the SES folks who are the empire builders. Most Government Employees would like to do a better job but they are held back by the "Management" who does not want to make waves. I was a Bureaucrat myself for a number of years but I was a GS-12 when I got out (Legalization Officer with INS for 2 years after 18 years with Customs in law enforcement). We were stifled by a GS-15 who surrounded himself with sycophants (GS-13's and 14's) who would do his bidding and were hand picked by him to continue the dirty programs. He eventually went to Leavenworth for the "Long Course" and his cohorts were demoted and transferred. (at the time Bill Clinton did not want the scandal to break so only the top dog in my district went to jail. The INS commissioner who was in to the mess up to his eyeballs was never prosecuted and was only forced into retirement)

[reconeil]

Can't argue your points about voting and the many not voting. Nor would I, since whom one votes for (or not) should be of no concern whatsoever regarding EARNED FOR OVER & OVER & OVER Veteran Care. Such is not some politically conjured-up entitlement, to be bandied about as most other things are.

Plus,...there are beaurocrats, and there are beaurocrats, and I'm sure that the ones being chastized are: "The big cheeses" or do nothing (other than make things bigger and more confusing and unmanageable) types, and/or political appointees and friends of such.

I think that ACCOUNTABILITY is a must, just as in The Private Sector...for the care and well being of The American Veteran and Disabled American Veterans PERIOD. Politics or demigods have no place whatsoever regarding The American Veteran.

If a sweeper at a VA Facility doesn't sweep right,...FIRE HIM.
If an orderly doesn't give an Honorable Veteran the courtesy and respect due,...FIRE HIM.
If a paper shuffler (G-whatever?) gives a Disabled Veteran undue grief,...FIRE HIM.
If The Head of The VA refuses to correct what alluded to (plus more),...FIRE HIM TOO (plus his cousins).

There now,...wasn't that easy?

Besides, aren't there people out there that really need the work and actually want to work, and are much more capable?

Neil :d: :b: