General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump demands subservience and gets incompetence
Link to tweet
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-demands-subservience-and-gets-incompetence/2019/06/25/ec69b692-978d-11e9-830a-21b9b36b64ad_story.html?utm_term=.0cb3b04d2a39
Trump demands subservience and gets incompetence
By Dana Milbank
Columnist
June 25 at 7:54 PM
snip//
Its no mere coincidence that the border debacle is the work of Trumps Homeland Security Department, where every major border- and immigration-related agency is led by an acting official. Trumps acting commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, John Sanders, just resigned after only two months on the job. The Posts Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey report that he will be replaced by the current acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Mark Morgan (who got the job after praising Trumps policies on Fox News). Morgan, in turn, has only been on the job for a couple of months since Trump fired yet another acting director of ICE. Trump had also ousted his DHS secretary and his head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and he has tabbed an immigration czar who has not yet accepted the job.
snip//
Trump is unabashed in his preference for this Apprentice-style, youre fired leadership. Its a theme of a new book about Trumps Cabinet, The Best People, by Yahoo News national correspondent Alexander Nazaryan. Of his fondness for acting officials, Trump told Nazaryan: It gives me a lot of leeway. It gives me great flexibility. I do like it. Its such a big deal to get people approved nowadays. .?.?. We have actings, and were seeing how we like them.
In other words, the administration is run by people on perpetual tryout, perpetual probation, unable to make long-term plans or to command the respect of those they (nominally) lead. The Federal Aviation Administration, which botched its handling of the Boeing 737 Max crashes, has been led by acting officials. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which bungled the recall of Fisher-Prices Rock n Play bassinet, has been run by an acting chairwoman. (She announced last week she will step down at the end of her term in October.)
Now, Trumps actings are causing babies to go hungry, and they may soon bumble us into war with Iran. But thats okay, because Trump likes the flexibility.
kentuck
(110,950 posts)They could insist on Senate approval, but they do not.
Vinca
(50,170 posts)watoos
(7,142 posts)that Trump wants chaos. To get people who are like him he can't put them through the Senate confirmation process. Look how many of Trump's cabinet members are "acting" members.
nuxvomica
(12,364 posts)Companies replace FTEs with temps and consultants to give themselves more "flexibility" but they wind up depriving the organization of institutional memory, commitment and accountability. I've seen it happen over and over. What stops it is customer dissatisfaction.
greymattermom
(5,751 posts)Companies hire contractors who leave as soon as they can find anything better. Then they have to train a whole new batch of workers, and they fire at least half of those during training, so everyone is afraid of being fired every day. How can this actually save money? The staffing companies get paid more than the workers. My daughter wants an all year part time job. She gets a full time six month contract via a staffing agency, every year with the same company. She gets unemployment during her yearly furlough. This costs the company and the state a lot more than the 3 days a week all year position she wants.
watoos
(7,142 posts)underpants
(182,279 posts)Yes. George Allen. He also spent a lot of money removing games (Minesweeper Freecell) from state computers.
The DEPT. of Transportation was a mess. He was laying off engineers to such an extent that as I understood it the Friday routine was - come in, work until lunch, pack up your office in a box, wait to see if you were getting axed. If by 4:00 you hadnt gotten a call you unpacked and left for the weekend. You can guess how this turned out - they hired people back under contract (NOT state employees) and paid more and that includes the cost of benefits. Virginia roads used to be spectacular but that one dip and theyve never been the same.
LastDemocratInSC
(3,625 posts)tanyev
(42,360 posts)Javaman
(62,442 posts)he's a fanciful idiot.