Private and public sector entities thrive, exist, or collapse based upon their ability to provide goods and/or services at a value (or price) that reasonably exceeds, or at least approximates, the cost of the goods and/or services provided. Pre 1980, absent the Republican's 's self-serving ideology of a "government that governs least, governs best" ideology, our forefather's checks and balances ensured a reasonableness between the value (price) and cost of goods and services within the private and public sectors. Post 1980, corrupt and greedy politicians (Democrats and Republicans) oversaw the demise of our (once) three separate and coequal branches of government and the continued distribution of valueless products and services within both the private and public sectors. The U.S. economy collapsed because weakened government infrastructures, rules, and regulations promoted the sale and use of valueless products and services by banks, financial institutions, other corporate entities, and the public sector, as well. These wanton crimes against the American people continue, unabated, because weakened government infrastructures not only hide and protect the perpetrators of these crimes but continue the stranglehold that corporate America has over every facet of the government's operation. If there is any question concerning the accuracy of this statement, look at the number of politicians and corporate heads in jail, none. Realize that the "Occupy Wall Street" movement must be expanded to also include an "Occupy Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branch" movement to fix this broken bureaucracy and also hold corrupt politicians and corporate heads accountable to the full extent of the law.
Cutting the federal bureaucracy by 50% (minimum), starting at the top, begins with the realization that thirty years of deregulation, outsourcing, and war-related agendas included nothing less than insidious attempts to undermine this democracy. The goal within both the private and public sectors was simple, redistribute 99% of the American people's financial wealth to the richest 1%. The word insidious accurately describes this redistribution of resources effort because, under the current arrangement, it is in no one's best interest to reveal the blatant collusion and corruption that permeates every facet of the government's operation. Consider that these very clever, and corrupt, politicians successfully "politicized" an entire federal bureaucracy by systematically replacing the government's professionals with less qualified and/or more politically astute managers; one approach included the elimination of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) minimal 4 year college degree requirement from many government position standards. As an example, the OPM position standards for professional government electrical engineers (EE), accountants, and auditors no longer contain 4 year college EE or accounting degree requirements. The technically challenged political appointee and career service (GS-13 thru 15) bureaucrat "managers" who replaced these professionals were then given carte blanche authority to break whatever laws they deemed appropriate to implement those Republican ideologies. This strategy provided protection to corrupt politicians since it was, now, not in the best interest of these minimally educated managers to reveal their inadequate qualifications, their undeserved six-figure salaries, or the roles they (and their political benefactors) played in breaking the government's laws.
The down side to this strategy is today's broken, bloated, and dysfunctional bureaucracy and the reams of documented breaches of the constitution, Congress' (unenforced and meaningless) laws, blatant acts of perjury, and conspiracy to cover-up that perjury by government officials, at all levels. This documentation also helps to explain the Republican's obsession with addressing the government's budget deficits solely with drastic cuts to a bloated bureaucracy that they helped to create. Consider also that their actions may be, just a bit, disingenuous since drastic cuts to this bloated bureaucracy effectively turns over all inherent government functions to the corporate entities and contractors who now control every aspect of the government's operation. Examples include Vice President Cheney's secret talks with energy-producing corporations and the elimination of OPM's 4 year EE college degree requirements for government electrical engineers, George W. Bush's systematic replacement of Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) professionals with former Goldman Sach's personnel, the outright lies concerning Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and, then, the systematic elimination of FBI, CIA, and NSA whistleblowers using the State Secret Act (SSA) and Espionage Act as an excuse, and the list goes on. The Obama administration continues these same secrecy policies, ongoing threats and retaliation against the government's truth tellers, like Bradley Manning, Thomas Drake, and many others. Why?
Then, there is the largely hidden 24 year old travesty involving an entire federal bureaucracy's receipt of valueless accounting and financial system services from the Republican's financial management contractors (FMC's), AICPA firms, financial software companies, and management consulting firms, at a taxpayer cost involving multibillions of dollars. The term valueless, in this case, means that all federal departments, bureaus, and agencies, including the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and right arm of Congress, still use manually manipulated spreadsheet totals to prepare the government's formal financial statements. This transfer of inherent government financial management-related responsibilities also included the elimination of OPM's 4 year college accounting degree requirement for accountants and auditors as a way of hiding all levels of collusion and corruption between politicians and the Republican's FMC's. These lowered OPM accountant position standards were then used to systematically replace the government's (once) professional accountants and auditors with former accounting GS-4 clerks, now GS-13 thru 15 accountant and auditor managers.
These wanton violations of the False Claims Act occurred with the full knowledge of the last 5 Republican and Democrat administrations. If the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush administrations (illegally) weakened the government's infrastructures to promote their Republican ideologies, then why did the Clinton and Obama administration cover-up all reported accounting and financial system deficiencies? Was it because these former accounting clerks were routinely rewarded for eliminating the few remaining accountant and OIG auditor professionals and covering-up all reported accounting and financial system deficiencies? Or, was it because the current and former Comptroller Generals of the U.S., Gene Dodaro and David Walker, had given thirteen years of patently false written Congressional testimony regarding their continued assurances that the "federal government has made significant progress in improving financial management activities and practices." Or, was it because the Republican's FMC's oversaw every phase (implementation, consulting, and auditing) of their valueless services and (also) routinely covered-up all problems in their audits? Or was it because EPA's Administrator, 2 different Chief Financial Officers, 2 different Office of Inspector General (OIG) auditors, Health and Human Resources Office, Freedom of Information Office (FOI), and Office of General Counsel (OGC) offices worked as one to cover-up the government's use of manual Excel spreadsheets to prepare all government financial statements? Or, was it because on September 10, 2010, EPA's OGC classified a freedom of information act (FOIA) request that would have revealed the blatant collusion and corruption between government bureaucrats and the FMC's as secret by classifying that information as confidential business information (CBI)?
The National Accountant Whistleblower Coalition (NAWBC) website provides more background information, letters, internal emails, and other documentation to support all of the above allegations. If we want the minimal 50% cuts to this bloated, dysfunctional, federal spending machine to decrease (and even eliminate) this country's monumental budget deficits then we must expand the "Occupy Wall Street" movement to also include an "Occupy Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branch" movement. The message to each of these government branches should be clear and include the following: (1) Executive Branch - upgrade all executive branch department, bureau, and agency OPM position standards on a par with the private sector to exclude, as much as practicable, the need for outside contractors, (2) Congress -- term limits for all members, (3) Judicial Branch -- prison sentences for those presidents, vice presidents, political appointees, career service bureaucrats, and corporate heads who broke the law, and (4) a government-wide effort to rescind the Citizens United law, pass a government version of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, real and unconditional whistleblower protection legislation for FBI, CIA, NSA, and all other whistleblowers, and eliminate all senior executive service (SES) department, bureau, and agency-level positions as their only function is to hide the government's inherent operational problems to protect each incoming administration from any possible embarrassment.
