This is without doubt one of the biggest federal authorities scandals of all time. Many a whole lot of 1000’s of federal staff have been getting a full-time paycheck from Uncle Sam (which means from all of us) with out exhibiting up for work for three years now. They don’t name it Membership Fed for nothing.
To be truthful, simply because an worker is working remotely doesn’t imply they aren’t working. Solely just a little greater than half of personal sector employees are literally within the workplace as of late — though, with every passing day, non-public employees are returning to work websites. However within the public sector, the proportion of distant employees stays a lot greater than that. The Federal Instances information outlet studies that on the finish of 2022, solely about 1 in 3 federal bureaucrats have been on the job within the workplace.
Wait. The COVID scare ended two and a half years in the past, and most non-public companies have demanded their staff present up for work a minimum of a number of the time — or discover a new employer. What’s so particular and privileged about authorities employees?
Now, new Home Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) is pushing a invoice that may require all federal companies to reinstitute their telework insurance policies as they existed on Dec. 31, 2019, with expanded distant work just for licensed tasks. That invoice handed the Home on a 221-206 vote. Guess what? All however six Home Democrats voted no. Is there any marvel why? Effectively, greater than 90% of PAC donations from federal worker unions go to … you bought it, Democrats.
Who’re the Democrats accountable to? Federal staff, or their very own taxpayer voters and constituents who pay these employees’ salaries? This vote makes the reply to that query crystal clear. So, the remainder of America in non-public sector jobs is again to work, however not the 1.9 million federal staff, who usually make $100,000 a yr in salaries and advantages. All of that is an outrageous abuse of taxpayer cash, however there’s a silver lining right here. Increase your hand if you happen to’ve even observed that federal employees will not be exhibiting up on the Division of Power or Training or Transportation or the State Division or the Shopper Product Security Fee.
Has this disrupted your life in any materials manner? Not mine.
Possibly we’ve all realized a worthwhile lesson right here. Possibly these companies aren’t as indispensable as President Joe Biden says they’re. We may doubtlessly save billions of {dollars} and scale back our debt by eliminating a few of these out of date or irrelevant companies, departments and bureaus.
A price range deadlock between Biden and congressional Republicans could result in a short lived shutdown of a few of these companies. How may that be Armageddon if we don’t even know when the employees are on the job?
Possibly we may minimize the federal workforce in half from 2 to 1 million staff. My finest guess is no person would discover, and no person would care.
Stephen Moore is a senior fellow on the Heritage Basis
