Don’t blame government for political abuses
As
PEF members and retirees, we established our credentials through education,
training and experience that enabled us to qualify for civil service exams
and state employment.Nevertheless, in recent decades we have endured an increasing barrage of government and public-employee bashing that would have you believe government is the problem, rather than the solution to our societal ills.
This government bashing has distorted reality and confused the public about the real source of waste, mismanagement and ineptitude.
Public employees keep the government functioning, provide vital services and do it all, in many instances, despite a political environment that often confuses our mission and drains our energy and resources.
Government bashers do not understand, or choose not to acknowledge, the real reasons why government can become wasteful and ineffective. They preach the indiscriminate reduction of government and the glories of unregulated enterprise.
One should ask: Do we want to live in a society where mines explode and lives are lost because of neglected health and safety rules? Where mortgages and other financial instruments are misrepresented and overvalued? Where we can’t trust auditors and where corporations create environmental disasters threatening the planet’s ecology and the livelihoods of millions of Americans?
Judicious oversight and regulation by government is essential in preventing “Ponzi schemes” and Enron meltdowns, in protecting our food supply, our health and the financial security of honest Americans.
Government is not the problem.
It’s political abuse that wastes our taxes, corrupts and misdirects services, promotes patronage, and gerrymanders voting districts to perpetuate the careers of the abusers.
We cannot stand by and allow our government and society to be dominated by such corrupt and powerful interests.
The late American diplomat Chester Bowles was right when he said, “Government is too big and important to be left to the politicians.”
We must help the public clearly distinguish between honest, qualified government workers and wasteful, corrupt politicians.
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