Employees have jobs safeguarded

Published 7:35 pm Sunday, March 10, 2013

Go to USA.gov and view the alphabetical list of U.S. government departments; there are hundreds of them. These employ over 4.4 million people. It is inconceivable that this bureaucratic monster couldn’t be culled to achieve the desired reduction in spending. The “sequester” will affect some of them but an unfair portion of the 85 billion in cuts is going to remove benefits from citizens who can least afford to lose them; the elderly, the infirm and those earning only the minimum wage. Laying off government employees on the other hand would have far less of an impact on the economy because most of them are educated enough to find jobs in the private sector and would add to the GDP. This seems like a win-win solution; it cuts government spending and increases tax revenue.

However, although this has an appealing logic there are layers of legislation safe-guarding these departments from an onslaught of funding cuts. And to eliminate or change their terms of reference would require ever more legislation. That’s why a department set up to assist Civil War veterans has only recently been shut down.

So, unfortunately for us the “sequester” is the only option open to the government (other than increasing debt).

Roger Sayer

Mukilteo