Institutionalizing Incompetence

A point on bureaucracy:


Democrats have leapt on reports of mold, rats and bureaucratic hurdles at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as further proof of President George Bush’s failed war policies. To the contrary, the problems at Walter Reed are further proof of the Democrats’ failed domestic policies to wit, the civil service rules that prevent government employees from ever being fired. (A policy that also may account for Robert Byrd’s longevity as a U.S. senator.) Thanks to the Democrats, government employees have the world’s most complicated set of job protection rules outside of the old East Germany. Oddly enough, this has not led to a dynamic workforce in the nation’s capital. Noticeably, the problems at Walter Reed are not with the doctors or medical care. The problems are with basic maintenance at the facility. Unless U.S. Army generals are supposed to be spraying fungicide on the walls and crawling under beds to set rattraps, the slovenly conditions at Walter Reed are not their fault. The military is nominally in charge of Walter Reed, but because of civil service rules put into place by Democrats the maintenance crew can’t be fired. If the general ‘in charge’ can’t fire the people not doing their jobs, I don’t know why he is being held responsible for them not doing their jobs. You will find the exact same problems anyplace market forces have been artificially removed by the government and there is a total absence of incentives, competition, effective oversight, cost controls and so on. It’s almost like a cause-and-effect thing.

Ann Coulter

Courtesy of the Federalist Patriot


Walter Reed epitomizes what happens when you have an entrenched bureaucracy. Long ago the Democrats cemented government employees as one of their most loyal voting blocks by guaranteeing them employment-no matter how incompetent or corrupt. We shouldn`t be surprised that a staff insulated from the pink slip would do their jobs in a slipshod manner.

As has been pointed out, Walter Reed is what we are going to get with Hillarycare; health care will be universal, all right; universally bad. We may end up with barbers returning to their ancient role of non-emergency health care providers, since going to a Hillary Reed is apt to be bad for one`s health.

Of course, the Democrats have tried to make their folly the Republican`s fault, and they are trying to do it again with airport security; they are again pushing to unionize airport screeners. It was bad enough that President Bush caved in to their demands and made screening a cushy government job, but at least the President had the good sense to keep the positions non-union, lest he be prevented from firing incompetent help. The Democrats, always viewing things through the prism of their political fortunes, are again demanding that their corrupt friends in mafia-infested unions be given these employees to plunder for the Democrat Party coffers.

Do we really want to extend the problems of Walter Reed to our airports? Some people may die from poor conditions in a hospital, but a LOT of people will die from negligent baggage screening. Ask the good people of New York, if you don`t believe that.

Unions, by their monopolistic nature, are corrupt, and that is why organized crime has always had a hand in them. Is it wise to make organized crime the guardians of our safety in a post-911 world? How much bribe money will it take to convince a mafiosa union thug to look the other way?

But none of this matters to the Democrats. They care for neither country nor kin, but merely for power and the trappings which accompany that. America will suffer dearly for those new Democrat donors if this scheme comes to fruition.