Outstanding Letter to the Editor on Sequestration

In a letter to the editor printed on Sunday, March 31st, Nelson Balido, APR, President of the Border Trade Alliance, wrote that the U.S. Government, including the Department of Homeland security should use the sequester cuts to do a top down  evaluation of it's entire operation and take actions to reduce redundancies and increase efficiency.

Mr. Balido, you are asking an awful lot, first, because it makes sense, and second, it would require the federal government do exactly the opposite of how our legislators expect them to operate.  Mr. Balido, don't you know that those two words you chose to describe government operation (redundancy and inefficiency  are the life blood of government.  Especially the federal government.  You see, many of us have been asking that federal spending can be reduced dramatically by doing what you suggest, adopting practices from the private sector to "lean" down an operation.

But, by "leaning" down an operation, you would be asking a federal bureaucrat to "cut" employees, reduce un-needed capital (drones, tanks, etc...) and improve processes to be quick and cheap.  This goes against everything the union dominated government believes.  It goes against what our legislators have voted for.  

Example, the U.S. Postal Service is broke and outspends it revenue by billions of dollars.  The U.S. Postmaster has suggested that we end Saturday mail service for regular mail, not expedited deliveries.  This would save those billions of dollars so the post office would be solvent.  But NO, the United States Congress, both parties, said we cannot do that, it would be against the wishes of the people.  What people? Who really needs USPS mail service on Saturday?  Federal checks are deposited electronically.  So why would anyone need regular mail service on Saturday?  The truth is they don't, but the postal union is powerful and hence, we still have Saturday mail delivery.

Mr Balido, I agree with you whole heatedly,  but unfortunately our government does not.  I wish we could force these folks into efficiency.  But until we get rid of the public sector unions, get rid of the multi-term politician who believes an efficient government is one that spends money that we don't have, and we get rid of the  local and state politicians that believe we must bribe politicians above them in the money chain in order to get needed funding for state and local uses, we are doomed to a government that will whine every time anyone talks of cutting a penny from their budgets.

So, expect the same ol response to your letter Mr. Balido expect nothing, except the whine,  about spending cuts from the federal government.