When the people of Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Tunisia finally got tired of being mistreated, lied to, and abused by their dictators, they fought back, and are still fighting, for a more democratic-style government. Today, the U.S. government has descended from a rich and vibrant democracy of three independent and equal government branches with real checks and balances into an abusive, secretive, bankrupt, and corporate-driven oligarchy. All three government branches of public officials now work as one to enrich themselves and their corporate benefactors on the backs of the American people. This untenable position continues because the American people, Democrats, and Republicans, seem to have lost sight of three fundamental facts: (1) this 236 year old democracy exists only because our forefathers and colonists demanded a government of, by, and for the people and settled for nothing less, (2) our forefather's checks and balances insulated executive and judicial branch civil service professionals from the political whims of each incoming administration, and (3) public officials once honored the Constitution, the government's laws, and made every effort to ensure the American people's trust in a unique and treasured democratic way-of-life. Today, Presidents, Congress, and other public officials lie, ignore the Constitution, routinely break the government's laws, and dishonor their positions of power and trust with the simple act of refusing to release their tax returns. Why do we, the American people, continue to tolerate a government that no longer supports our forefather's democratic principles, Constitution, and our best interests?
The U.S. government's precipitous fall from solvent democracy to fear-based, abusive, secretive, and bankrupt oligarchy began with the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) and a political and legislative mandate to promote efficiency and accountability. This legislation violated one of our forefather's checks and balances by replacing "apolitical" civil service professionals with corporate managers that would now fill newly created senior executive service (SES) political appointee management positions within the executive and judicial branches. This meant that, post 1978, each incoming administration's President, Vice President, and executive schedule (EX) political appointees could now use (or be used by) those inherited corporate SES executive and judicial branch political appointee "managers" and their (now beholden) career civil service "employees." In accordance with the 1978 CSRA, both EX & SES political appointee corporate managers could now routinely flit between the government's executive and judicial branches and their "parent" corporation big money jobs, thereby earning them the title of revolving door bureaucrats (RDBs). Did President Obama break his promise to the American people of an "open, transparent, and accountable government?" Or, did he, future administrations, and the American people not realize that the federal government's infrastructures had already been fashioned (weakened) to promote corporate-driven agendas then, now, and forever? Read the remainder of this article and you can decide for yourself.
Since 1978, politicians and their RDB corporate managers created
an unwieldy bureaucracy, trillion dollar annual deficits, and a national debt
that skyrocketed from 845 billion to 16.3 trillion dollars. Deregulation,
outsourcing, and war-related political agendas increased this corporate stranglehold
even more, along with the ever-increasing waste, fraud, and abuse of the
taxpayer's money. RDB corporate managers and their contractors have continued
to dominate and undermine virtually every facet of the government's federal
bureaucracy. Harbingers of those failed political agendas, and monumental increases
to the national debt include the 1980's bailout of failed savings and loan (S&L)
companies, the 2008 economic crisis, and the Iraq
and Afghanistan
oil-related wars. The American people, however, are still unaware of just how badly
Republicans, Democrats, and their corporate RDBs have weakened and destroyed the
federal bureaucracy's infrastructures solely to implement those corporate-driven
agendas. Both parties violated the Constitution and broke the government's laws
by either intentionally undermining the government's infrastructures to
implement those political agendas, and/or in covering-up that fact by ignoring the
consistent warnings from government whistleblower professionals. Both government
security (FBI, CIA, and NSA) and non security whistleblower professionals,
including the military, scientists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants,
and auditors, have reported these serious breaches, to no avail.
After 34 years of politically-driven, fear-based practices in forcing these political agendas, the government's infrastructures have been continually undermined, as follows: (1) harass, retaliate against, ostracize, and fire civil service professionals for protecting the best interests of the American people, (2) covert elimination of the minimal 4 year college degree Office of Personnel Management (OPM) requirement from professional position standards in order to replace those professionals with unqualified people; available documentation shows that accountants, auditors, and Department of Energy (DOE) engineer professional positions have already been undermined in this manner, along with probably others, (3) Congress' ongoing failure to pass real whistleblower protection legislation despite a 14 year, intensive effort by non-profits and whistleblowers to pass this legislation, and (4) political appointee RDB cover-ups of all levels of collusion and corruption by abusing the State Secrets Privilege (SSP) and confidential business information (CBI) policies.
Just as corporate profits (and reduced expenses) require the highest qualified staff and managers and the full and unconditional support of everyone up the corporate chain-of-command, the same conditions also apply for cutting the gross waste, fraud, and abuse from the government's operation.Look at the following executive, judicial, and legislative branch examples to better understand how politicians and/or their corporate RDB managers have consistently undermined the government and are solely responsible for the $15.5 trillion dollar increase in the national debt since 1978. Citizens must take a more active role in demanding the specific government reforms needed to decrease the national debt and return this government back to the American people.
Executive Branch
Three executive branch examples involving the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Drug Administration (FDA), and an executive branch government-wide fiduciary failure illustrate but a few of the U.S. government's wanton acts of collusion and corruption:
SEC -- The American people have paid top dollar to EX / SES political appointee RDBs from Goldman Sachs, AIG, Lehman Brothers, and other financial institutions. In return for receiving their taxpayer subsidized salaries, politicians and their RDBs have eliminated civil service professionals for protecting the American people's best interests, shredded the documentation relating to over 18,000 cases against many of their parent corporate firms, and precipitated the 2008 economic crisis. Reference Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone article, "Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes?"
FDA
scientists are also constantly under attack for questioning the EX / SES political
appointee RDB medical review process that places their parent corporation profits
above the safety of the American people. The following FDA scientist quote in a
2009 Truthout article raises legitimate questions over the government's
continued use of EX / SES political appointee RDBs to fill managerial positions
at federal department, bureau, and agency levels:
"Currently, there is an atmosphere at FDA in which the honest employee fears the dishonest employee (and political appointee RDB managers)."
A recent July 2012 New York Times story, "Vast FDA Effort Tracked Emails of Its Scientists," expands on the above 2009 story and details how FDA political appointee RDB managers tracked internal scientist emails to Congress and the media (like criminals). Why? Because they voiced their professional concerns and exercised their 1st amendment rights, and, for this, four professional scientists were fired.
Executive branch government-wide fiduciary failure -- Executive branch agencies, including the Department of Defense, have no ability to provide an accurate accounting of the taxpayer's money, at any level. The overall problem is that it is more profitable for politicians and their campaign-contributing benefactors, like the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), to oversee two deficient accounting standards, one for the federal government and yet another for state and local governments. The following brief federal anecdote describes how this collusion and corruption works at the federal level.
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