Monday, July 3, 2017

Empty Chairs at Empty Desks

I'm seeing more and more that Trump just doesn't play well with others. While he has no problem dropping executive order after executive order, he seems prone to backstabbing when he has to work with others. That's probably part of the reason there's constantly discussion about who in his administration is maybe on their way out. His decision to fire Comey is also a demonstration of that issue. He seems to be of the mindset that he's the boss and that means no one gets to question what he does. That may fly when he's running a company, but it absolutely does not when he's running a country.

But while he may think executive orders are a good way to get things done and further his agenda, his actions would have a much more lasting impact if he could work with others, such as the people who would fill the 384 key government positions for which he has put forward no formal nominees:
“The biggest obstacle [to filling the positions] is that the White House hasn’t submitted nominations,” said Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

The White House didn’t respond to calls for comment, but Trump has said previously that “in many cases, we don’t want to fill those jobs.”

Experts on both the left and right, however, said the large number of vacancies could make the administration less effective. Politico this month reported that many Cabinet secretaries are spending large chunks of time meeting with Trump, in part because they don’t yet have deputies. Dozens of ambassador positions have yet to be filled, leaving embassies in countries such as Afghanistan and France with acting ambassadors. Key roles at the Treasury Department remain vacant, including officials in charge of White House priorities such as tax reform and financial deregulation. At the Education Department, the roles overseeing civil rights, policy development and technical education are empty. And despite Trump’s focus on blue-collar workers, he has yet to fill positions in the Labor Department dealing with employee training, veterans employment and mine safety.

“His policies aren’t going to go anywhere if staff is not implemented,” said Tom Fitton, president of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch. Fitton said that the holdup in nominations is a “concern shared widely.”
It's true, Trump has said he wants to eliminate many positions to make for a more efficient government. But it's amazing that someone supposedly elected for being a good business man doesn't seem to realize that you don't make a more efficient company by leaving positions unfilled - you have actually eliminate those positions and update the company hierarchy. If the boss's desk sits empty, people aren't just going to take over all of those responsibilities organically. They'll take over the responsibilities that absolutely have to get done, and the rest will just pile up until a new boss is hired. What Trump is doing seems more, not less, likely to encourage government waste and inefficiency.

No comments:

Post a Comment