OPINION:
Running a business requires a steady hand and an open mind. Managers need patience, grace and understanding for their employees. However, patience, grace and understanding are three things easily taken advantage of by those with ulterior motives, and the federal government is not immune to them.
In the professional world, your performance in your role typically determines a lot about your future in said role. If you excel at what you do, are on time every day and bring in new business, the odds are that you will get promoted or at least have longevity. When an employee does the opposite, consequences follow, and when bloat hits a company and it’s time to trim fat, layoffs occur. This is basic business practice, something the federal government should be knowledgeable about but has repeatedly proved to be ignorant of.
We are now seeing the implementation of these baseline approaches within our federal government with the streamlining of agencies and departments such as the Department of Health and Human Services.
The legacy media machine and online talking heads went into a tailspin last week when HHS announced plans to release 10,000 federal employees on top of the 10,000 already gone via the Trump administration’s early departure offer. Then, they went into full sympathy siphon mode when Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. followed his plan. Fired HHS employees even went to Capitol Hill to attempt to complain to lawmakers about losing their jobs.
Spoiler: It did not go well for them.
The media tell stories designed to elicit sympathy for the dismissed employees who serve at the pleasure of any president, stoke anger against the agenda the American people mandated in November and manufacture fear that our government will stop working when the bloat is cut out. This is a dangerous ploy by the legacy media to play politics and reaffirms their biases against those with whom they disagree. The best way to look at the impact of these cuts is to see who was fired from the top.
One of the most egregious states of rampant bureaucracy within HHS was the 40 communications offices closed in the department itself. That is a staggering number that should concern any American. Why would HHS need a bigger communications team than the White House? This corporate jungle empowers unelected bureaucrats and prevents the department from speaking in a unified voice, leading to confusion when focus matters most.
We saw a similar situation unfold at the National Institutes of Health when Jay Bhattacharya removed the directors from four subagencies amid the releases, including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. This agency instituted draconian measures under its previous leader, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and went around scientific integrity norms to push controversial policies. When it came to masking, especially cloth masking, the agency made the policy it wanted and then cherry-picked the research to back it up. Removing the directors from the agency is an opportunity to find science leaders to promote policies backed by real research, not cherry-picked opinions.
One of the loudest media screeches came over the release of the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine’s top veterinarians overseeing the bird flu response. Although a robust response to disease is important, especially diseases affecting our food supply, having too many cooks in the kitchen can be detrimental to a response rather than effective. We saw the same problem with COVID-19, where special interest groups and multiple government agencies attempted to jam through policies that did not always align. By streamlining these agencies, we may see a quicker and better-tailored response than what 30 government agencies can provide.
A final example is the Center for Tobacco Products, an agency under the Food and Drug Administration dealing with tobacco product regulations. Brian King and many other HHS personnel were removed from their posts in the April 1 cuts. However, the agency under Mr. King’s leadership faced a monumental problem: tens of millions of electronic cigarette applications sat unmoving within the agency. In fact, of the 26 million applications in the backlog of the agency, fewer than 50 products were authorized. This poses several questions, including whether people at the Center for Tobacco Products charged with these authorizations were doing their jobs.
It is important for us to remember one important fact as we continue to see our government shrink and streamline: This is accountability. For decades, our government agencies have grown larger in size and scope, draining taxpayer dollars for little follow-through.
Our agencies failed us, so it’s time for us to fix them.
• Houston Keene joins Democracy Restored after a career working in Congress and as a nationally syndicated journalist covering politics, including the executive branch and government ethics. He is a native of Austin, Texas, and is a proud father, husband and Baylor Bear.
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