President-elect Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” helped get him elected by voters tired of an enormous federal bureaucracy that never stops growing; that endlessly saddles its subjects with overly-burdensome, job-killing rules; and whose employed-for-life bureaucrats live recession-free in the wealthiest region in the country. Trump can start draining part of the swamp to save businesses that help keep the government lean.
Days after the election, at the early hour to which he became accustomed to rising in his 25 years of active duty, I met a former Marine Corps colleague for coffee south of the Pentagon. His business had grown from three employees to 100 due to the hard work it takes not only to win contracts but also to keep federal customers happy: not just bid-to-bid, or project-to-project, but for the duration of each contract by servicing and responding to technical issues.
I was surprised by the way he opened our discussion. With relief more than euphoria, he welcomed the election results. “If it had gone the other way, I was going to close our doors. The bureaucracy is beating us to death. Something had to change.”
He doesn’t know if Trump will bring the changes his business needs to survive, but he knew that if Clinton won and continued President Obama’s policies, it meant the end for him and his employees. His indictment included out-of-control rulemaking by the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service, the administrative burdens of Obamacare, and the increasingly incompetent federal juggernaut.
The Department of Labor is “out of control,” he said. In communications, rule-making and guidance issuing, it views employers as the enemy and federal bureaucrats as employees’ only friends. One area where employees need protection, the department argued under Obama, is 401(k) plans, so it and the IRS increased disclosure requirements. This led to a “year-end checklist,” 25 items long, that my friend said has ballooned to 100. Many involve tax code provisions so picayune he cannot answer without the expert advice of his lawyer, accountant, or plan administrator.
Obamacare imposes its own unbearable burdens. Then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., famously said Congress had to pass the law so the public could “find out what is in it.” It is questionable whether she ever found out, but business owners like my Marine Corps colleague are learning the hard way. The charges they incur for payroll services have increased by 15 percent thanks to Obamacare alone, which does not include the increased costs incurred by management in time and money.
Finally, my friend complained that he identifies, hires and trains employees only to have the federal government hire them away. One day they work for him answering calls, for example, on software fixes and glitches. The next day they’re taking those calls as federal employees.
In the past, “A-76 studies,” which date back to the Reagan administration, ensured that federal workers only “perform inherently governmental activities,” but Obama ended them. Consequently, federal employment skyrocketed to the point that, before the election federal jobs were nearly double manufacturing jobs with the former increasing by 208,000 over the last year while the latter fell by 53,000.
Unlike my friend’s company, which demands its employees do their jobs or qualify for new ones as old jobs are phased out, federal employment is lifetime employment. Incompetents, and even those who spend their day watching porn, remain forever.
Today, from across the Potomac, men and women who fought for their country watch the White House to see if it will allow them to continue to help fight our country’s battles.
William Perry Pendley is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, has argued cases before the Supreme Court and worked in the Department of the Interior during the Reagan administration. He is the author of “Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan’s Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today.” Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
