During the entire course of World War II, Franklin Roosevelt never had more than 11 White House assistants. Compare that to the federal work force today, and it’s understandable that this nation now is $9 trillion in debt.
Democrats blame the Bush tax cuts; the administration blames the cost of fighting terrorism. Neither blames the obvious problem: The government spends beyond its means.
For example, Cabinet agencies now have so much money and so many employees that they duplicate one another’s efforts. Last week, acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner issued a statement regarding approval of the Peru Trade Promotion Agreement, saying that it “provides the momentum we need to move our trade agenda forward to other nations in line for trade promotion.”
Huh? Even though Peru is a market for U.S. farmers, isn’t a “trade agenda” the province of the Commerce Department? Perhapswith more than 100,000 full-time employees at the USDA, all the agriculture work is already done.
But Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez apparently has time on his hands, too, with 38,000 employees to conduct the department’s business. According to his official bio, Gutierrez “is actively involved in U.S. – Cuba policy. [He] is also one of the president’s point men on comprehensive immigration reform, an issue he sees as one of the greatest domestic social issues of our time.”
Uhhh … aren’t those responsibilities of State Department and the Department of Homeland Security?
The DHS also claims responsibility for the safety of this country’s imports, yet last week Mike Leavitt, secretary of Health and Human Services, presented to the president the Import Safety Action Plan recommended by a committee Leavitt heads.
But if food safety is the burden of the USDA, and the DHS monitors imports, then where does HHS come in? Maybe this is just an example of interagency cooperation — or maybe there isn’t enough work at HHS to keep its 66,000 employees busy.
HHS even counts among its tasks “management of National Forests and other Forest Service activities,” which must come as a surprise to the Department of Interior and its 73,000 employees.
Or maybe not. Last week, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne kicked off a new phase of his Improving Indian Literacy campaign, which one would think would be a job for the Department of Education.
The interior secretary had just returned from a trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast with first lady Laura Bush to announce the administration’s Marine Debris Initiative. What was the crucial message that taxpayers spent tens of thousands of dollars flying the first lady and her entourage to Mississippi to deliver?
That “marine debris, including derelict fishing gear and other discarded materials, continue to affect our marine ecosystems.” But fear not, gentle reader. According to the interior secretary, the administration is “leading the global effort by working with international organizations to prevent fishing gear from becoming lost.” Your tax dollars at work.
Meanwhile, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao hosted her department’s annual Salute to Veterans, highlighting its many programs that assist veterans and military personnel. Certainly, it is essential to help veterans transition into the civilian sector after they return from military duty. But has anyone made sure the Department of Labor is not duplicating the Department of Veterans Affairs efforts?
The White House Office on Faith-Based Initiatives — another commendable endeavor — is duplicated 11 times over: In the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Homeland Security, Justice, Labor, Veterans Affairs, the Agency for International Development and the Small Business Administration — all of which have faith-based initiatives.
Perhaps no shop in Washington is so egregiously overstaffed as the Executive Office of the President, filled with positions like the special assistant to the president for stamp-licking, the deputy assistant to the special assistant for stamp-licking, the personal assistant to the deputy assistant to the special assistant for stamp-licking, and so forth. No president could pretend with a straight face that all those jobs are essential.
As long as George W. Bush asks American taxpayers to cough up $5 billion a month to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the least he could do is demonstrate a little belt-tightening of his own. The days when a president could run a country and a war with 11 assistants are gone. But that’s no excuse never to prune a wildly growing executive branch.
Examiner columnist Melanie Scarborough’s column appears Mondays in The Washington Examiner.
