Commentary

News of securing the border and Trump’s applying of tariffs took up most of the media coverage until last week, however, when the political focus switched to criminal charges initiated by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, the House’s hearings on Biden’s mental acuity and the possible misuse of his autopen, and the controversy over the release of the Epstein files, you may have missed other newsworthy stories.

When I read Jeffrey A. Tucker’s commentary, “The President Can Finally Be President,” in The Epoch Times, I was reminded of items in my stack on which I had planned to comment.

“The Supreme Court,” Tucker wrote, ”has issued what could be the most important ruling in a century.  It has granted the U.S. president the right to manage the staffing and personnel of the entire executive branch, even if that entails mass terminations.”

Regular readers may recall my frequent critical commentary on the unelected bureaucrats who create rules and regulations to implement and enforce the legislation made by elected officials.

 “Everyone in government knows that the bureaucrats run everything,” Tucker noted. “But strangely, there is no fourth branch of government in the U.S. Constitution.  Nothing about the system is consistent with anything the Founders wrote and no governing documents.

President Trump is finally making headway on his first term promise of smaller, more responsive government by draining the swamp, otherwise referred to as “foggy bottom.”

If ever there was a Herculean task, this was it. As of last year, there were 2,405,100 civilian federal employees, not counting the 637 thousand employees of the U.S. Postal Service.

For tens of thousands of federal workers, Trump’s threat was enough, and they volunteered to take a buyout deal that offered pay through September 30, and left their positions. They were told of the potential layoffs, changing policy priorities and in-office changes. Thousands of others opted for early retirement.

State Department

With the Supreme Court’s decision to lift a court order that had halted the administration’s plan for large-scale reductions, Marco Rubio at the State Department was among the first to announce he would lay off nearly 3,000 bureaucrats, including 1,207 Civil Service and 246 Foreign Service officers with domestic assignments.  In addition, it will close 137 offices.

“State Department employees overwhelmingly back the Democrat ticket with 94 percent of donations going to Kamala Harris, noted Jan P. Villasmil in his Spectator piece, “Trump drains the Foggy Bottom.”

Opponents of Trump’s restructuring have bemoaned that State Department employees are being selected for their “fidelity” to the executive branch. This is, frankly, rich. Fidelity to the president isn’t some MAGA scheme – it’s a constitutional principle.

 “The executive branch is meant to set foreign policy; the bureaucracy is meant to execute it.  According to Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, the State Department and all foreign affairs agencies should have no policy interest – indeed, no interest at all – outside of what the president wants to accomplish.”  

“Caring about fidelity to the president is not the process of some shadowy, authoritarian cabal,” remarked Villasmil. “In fact, it represents the opposite: accountability to a legitimately elected authority.

“The self-replicating class within the State Department, ironically, has been the body guilty of fostering a behind-the-scenes subversive movement. It has enforced its own version of fidelity: not to the sitting president, but to a foreign-policy establishment – one that often outlasts and undermines elected administrations.

A BIT OF HUMOR:  Appearing on Nicole Wallace‘s podcast, actor Jeff Daniels, lamenting Kamala Harris’ loss said, “I still think about Kamala, and how she would have been a good choice,” added “Liz Cheney would have been secretary of state.” OMG

Education

Although the president signed an executive order pledging to close the Department of Education, saying, it “has an entrenched education bureaucracy that sought to convince America that Federal control over education is beneficial,” but doing so will require Congress to shut it down.

It will eventually be gone.  In the meantime, 1,376 department employees have been laid off, eliminating “discretionary functions better left to the states.” Sufficient staff will be retained to continue fulfilling statutorily mandated functions.

Incidentally, I learned that this department, that doesn’t educate anyone, does maintain a public relations office of 80 staffers at a cost of more than $10 million a year.

Agriculture

In the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Secretary Brook Rollins announced a sweeping reorganization and significant staff reductions, while citing a bloated workforce and rampant spending during the Biden administration.  The USDA staff grew by eight percent and salaries rose by14 percent “without any tangible increase in service.

Over 15,000 individuals have already selected to leave the agency through voluntary retirements.

In the move, 50 percent of the Washington DC area workforce will be relocated elsewhere, while the headquarters will shrink from 4.600 to 2,000 and many positions will be relocated to regional offices across the country where they will be closer to the farmers they serve.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.