Trump’s first year in office should be spent cleaning the bureaucratic house

(Trump.news) The so-called left-leaning “mainstream” media will do its best to undercut all aspects of the bombshell State Department inspector general’s report regarding Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while sitting as the nation’s chief diplomat. But there can be no doubt now – none – that this woman violated all kinds of rules regarding the handling of government data, highly sensitive and otherwise, in a way that sought to hide her activities from scrutiny while simultaneously undermining national security and the public trust – all of which President Barack Obama had to have known about, despite his denials (and if he didn’t, he should have known).

In short, no matter what you might think of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, Clinton’s State Department actions and her chronic disregard for the rules she insists others live by disqualifies her completely from ever gracing in the Oval Office as leader of the free world.

That said, the IG’s report regarding Clinton’s actions also touched on something that rarely gets discussed or debated: the byzantine, uncooperative, and secretive nature of the federal bureaucracy.

One of the IG’s findings in examining Clinton’s alleged improprieties is that on several occasions, State Dept. officials – all of whom are government employees who work for, and are paid by, the American people – thwarted or attempted to thwart the inquiry, either through misdirection or outright refusal to cooperate with investigators.

This is outrageous and is definitely something that the next president – hopefully one with corporate chops who has experience weeding out the non-compliant – needs to address.

There are inspectors general in every major federal agency, and their job in each one is the same: identify instances of rule-breaking and corruption, and report it to the appropriate agency chiefs and the American public.

The problem is that IG’s don’t have any real powers beyond identifying and reporting misdeeds; they cannot act on their findings. The political appointees in charge of the agencies have to take enforcement action, and too often they are hampered (or influenced) by an Executive Branch that habitually chooses political expediency over doing what is best for the country.

So, the career bureaucrats and mid-level staffers who infest these agencies – and have learned, long ago, that the secret to their success is keeping the political appointee above them happy and protected (or in the dark) – are left to their own devices. If they see “cooperation” as politically wise, then they cooperate with probes and investigations; if not, they don’t. And if it’s the latter, they wind up getting away with it, which is a major disservice to the people they really serve, the American public.

That has happened again, in the Clinton probe, at the State Department. To be clear, never – ever – should a federal employee, no matter what their GS level, get away with not cooperating with a corruption probe. And this is where a President Trump, with guidance from an experienced vice president who might be named Newt Gingrich, comes in.

Trump the businessman cannot be successful if the people he places in charge at various levels of his empire are not trustworthy, competent, and able to manage personnel below them. Imagine if, say, Trump were to discover that a mid-level manager was failing to take a corrective action on a flagging production line, and it was costing the division money. Would he simply write that off as business as usual, or would he can the both of them and replace them with new people?

Granted, the government isn’t a business, per se, but it is in the “business” of serving the best interests of the American people. And when those interests aren’t being served properly, those who are failing to do their jobs and their duties need to be replaced.

That will mean a couple of things.

First, a President Trump should make clear to his Cabinet members and other political appointees that incompetence, corruption, and “business as usual” will not be tolerated. That means they are to manage their respective agencies and departments with an eye toward correcting those issues, and that means if heads need to roll, so be it.

Second, Trump will greatly enhance the function, efficiency, and transparency of the federal bureaucracy by giving inspectors general enforcement powers, which would include the power to dismiss or reprimand public employees who refuse to cooperate with investigations or who mislead investigators.

The American people are flocking to Trump because they are fed up with an incoherent, weaponized, and unresponsive federal government, and they believe if it can be fixed, he’s the one to do it. With effective policy changes like these, Trump will be able to deliver on expectations.

Sources:

FoxNews.com