Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Why Government Can't Run Anything

The worst example of the petualant government punishing us for daring to try reeling them in just a bit was reported today.  Janet Napolitano has decided to release detained illegal immigrants, claiming the pending "sequester" as the cause.  This is why we shouldn't let the government run anything, because they aren't focused on doing the best thing for America, but on piling up as much personal power and wealth as they possibly can at the expense of the rest of us.

Some examples of bureaucratic dysfunction from personal experience:

Post Office:  Can we feel sorry that they're going bankrupt?  I have multiple experiences that went something like this:  I decide to run to the Columbus Post Office at lunchtime to mail a package or two.  But lunchtime is when everybody else goes to the Post Office, so the line goes out the door and way down the hall.  As I make my way slowly through the line, I observe that there are two clerks serving the line of what I've estimated to be about 50 customers.  When I'm almost at the front of the line, one of the two clerks finishes with a customer then puts the "Closed" sign up at his station and leaves.  Now there's only one clerk, and the line's still extended out the door and down the hallway.  You don't mess with a union worker's scheduled break - no matter what!  I learned to use my small-town branch, which has extremely limited hours and is actually closed at lunchtime, but if you catch them open there's never a line.

College: Got kids that went to private colleges.  Dealing with private colleges on tuition bills and financial aid questions is pretty nice.  They're very accessible, friendly, and helpful.  But if your kid goes to a public university, just flip that on its head.  Did they make a mistake on the tuition bill?  You probably will have to go ahead and just pay the mistake, because you'll never be able to resolve it.  It takes herioc persistence to actually get somebody in the Bursar's office to take your call.  If you do get that State employee on the phone, you'll be stunned at her attitude; she will make it clear to you that she really does not care in the slightest whether there was a mistake on your bill, she will be defensive in making it crystal clear to you that the mistake wasn't her fault, then she will show little to no interest in fixing the error.

Medicare and Medicaid:  We've just recently had more experience with these government organizations than anybody should be saddled with in a lifetime.  I won't go into detail, but just imagine all the worst stereotypes of the uncaring government bureaucrat rolled into one beastly government employee.  Its as if they've been trained to make any contact with them the most painful experience anyone could possibly imagine.  Excessive rules and regulations, most of which are unfathomable and random.  No compassion, no empathy, and certainly no attempt to be helpful in finding a way through the regulatory tangle to solve a problem.  I'd call Medicare and Medicaid bureaucrats bloodsucking trolls who practice Senior Abuse.  Just think, Obamacare mainly expands these programs to affect every one of us.

Now the idea of cutting back the growth of the bureaucracy about 2 percent has caused Obama to go on a campaign tour scaring everybody about all the government programs that will get worse because they can't spend all of the additional budget they were supposed to automatically receive next year.  The King of the Bureaucrats says, "How dare you cut back on my money. If you don't give it back, I'm going to make your lives even more miserable than I do already."

Is that even possible?

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