Civil and Federal Workforce Cutbacks Will Not Work

The immediate recall of Toyota units due to a defect in the accelerator system, the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that threatens to destroy marine wildlife, the sudden collapse of financial institutions that resulted in a significant increase in the number of unemployed people and the strengthening of the Taliban insurgency which have made the war effort in Afghanistan out of control are just some of recent events which have really brought pain and suffering especially to the American people. The taxpayers are definitely angry being the receiving end of the miseries brought by these unlikable events.

Today, the US government has implemented a freeze hiring on federal and civil department offices. The government is coming up with ways on saving more money to mitigate the problem of a growing budget deficit. They indirectly blame the federal workforce as a source of excessive expenses. They say that workforce cutbacks will be the primary solution in addressing the problem of overspending.

The truth is workforce cutbacks will only result in poor quality of service and add up to the problem of unemployment. Instead of blaming the workforce, why doesn’t the government check and scrutinize how they are handling and appropriating the national budget on various projects and earmarks. The losses gained from misappropriations and unreasonable earmarks are significantly higher than hiring a couple of workers to do get the job done.

Take for example the vehicular and traffic situation of the US. In the year 1980, there were about 146 million cars on the road nationwide. And about 199 personnel are working for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to ensure that highways are safe to all drivers. Today, the number of vehicles on the road has doubled and yet the number of safety personnel has significantly decreased. With only about 57 enforcement officers catering to the safety of 256 million vehicles, it is no wonder that many vehicular accidents occur.

The government should realize that the problem does not originate from the civil workforce but instead of the poor decisions made by higher authorities. We may not know it, but Congress has appropriated and implemented numerous earmarks which are not really beneficial and useful to most people. Cutting the government workforce will only reduce the performance of various departments of the government. If the government is really sincere in reducing the budget deficit, they should consider budgeting and careful spending. The people should also avoid electing politicians who use the taxpayer’s money for their own gains.