Trump’s vow to fire thousands of ‘crooked’ federal workers prompts alarm

By Free Republic | Created at 2024-09-24 00:59:49 | Updated at 2024-09-30 15:25:51 6 days ago

Trump’s vow to fire thousands of ‘crooked’ federal workers prompts alarm
Los Angeles Times ^ | Aug. 30, 2024 3 AM PT | James Rainey, Staff Writer

Posted on 09/23/2024 5:45:11 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

After one term as president in which his promise to remake the massive federal government mostly came up short, Donald Trump again is raining fury on the “deep state,” pledging if elected in November to replace career civil servants with his like-minded allies.

If Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance were to succeed in remaking the federal workforce in the way they have described, it would be the most radical reconfiguration of the U.S. government in 140 years.

Critics, including nonpartisan analysts, fear Trump’s proposal to replace thousands of civil servants with his loyalists would resurrect something like the 19th century “spoils” system, which Congress scrapped in the late 1800s due to rampant incompetence and cronyism.

The U.S. operated for much of the 1800s on the understanding that individuals won jobs with the government not by proving their expertise, but by having connections to presidents and their parties.

Congress moved to eliminate the spoils system in 1883, about 18 months after a disgruntled job-seeker assassinated the man he believed owed him a government appointment — James A. Garfield, the 20th president of the United States.

“You’re now talking about 140 years of presidential administrations — Republicans and Democrats — who all supported the proposition that the best way to get an effective government was to have a career, professional, merit-based civil service,” said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit that analyzes federal agencies and their employees. “So the idea that we would convert that, or return to a 19th-century-style spoils system, is a huge anomaly. It’s a radical change.”

Trump has made clear he does not intend to be dissuaded by those who have worked within the government before. The Republican presidential candidate recently offered his emphatic endorsement of a housecleaning when...”

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...

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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“it would be the most radical reconfiguration of the U.S. government in 140 years”

That has already happened during Obama and Biden.

2 posted on 09/23/2024 5:47:22 PM PDT by plain talk

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Yes, we know they are alarmed. They have tried twice to kill him.

3 posted on 09/23/2024 5:49:21 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)

To: E. Pluribus Unum

“the best way to get an effective government was to have a career, professional, merit-based civil service,”

Except when you have career civil servants who actively oppose the president.

4 posted on 09/23/2024 5:50:58 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants ("Gays for Gaza is like Chickens for KFC"- B. Netanyahu )

To: E. Pluribus Unum

I’m in favor of replacing most federal programs with block grants to the states, with half the money being allocated on a per capita basis (to help lower income states) and half by personal federal income tax paid (to help high employee cost states).

5 posted on 09/23/2024 5:51:08 PM PDT by Brian Griffin (Don't vote to be a tax slave on Kamala's plantation.)

To: E. Pluribus Unum

They skip over the fact that President Garfield was actively involved in Civil Service Reform. His efforts in this area lead to his assassination. Now Trump is talking about the same topic, and he’s been shot at twice. The media wants to pretend that this problem was “fixed” after Garfield was shot. It wasn’t. Still needs to be fixed.

6 posted on 09/23/2024 5:55:16 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (My decisions about people are based almost entirely on skin color. I learned this from Democrats.)

To: E. Pluribus Unum

*****

What benefit do we gain from the Dept of Education??

7 posted on 09/23/2024 5:55:31 PM PDT by ealgeone

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Civil servants = welfare leaches.

The administrative state MUST be destroyed and eliminated. This includes specifically the career hacks known as federal employees. Also need to get rid of government unions that depend entirely on the private sector taxpayers for their unearned federal wages. These unions are nothing but communist fronts. Arrest the leaders and throw them in prison. /spit

8 posted on 09/23/2024 5:56:59 PM PDT by Flavious_Maximus (Tony Fauci will be put on death row and die of COVID!)

To: plain talk

That has already happened during Obama and Biden.
_________________________________
Yes, so true, but the unwinding has to be done and a lot of them need to go to jail for a very long time.

9 posted on 09/23/2024 5:57:51 PM PDT by iontheball

To: Brian Griffin

I think the personal income tax needs to be removed with a constitutional amendment that eliminates the federal income tax and replaces it with a federal income tax on all tax revenues of The Staes. The federal government must be forbidden to micromanage American’s lives.

10 posted on 09/23/2024 5:59:39 PM PDT by wildcard_redneck (He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.)

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