Rumsfeld is back at, going on about how his plan to cut thousands of uniform military jobs and making them civilian positions is going to save the military. He claims, as always (he's been saying the same thing, minus the 9/11 hook, since the early 1990's) that freeing those troops, all of whom just can't wait to hunt down whatever evil strawman Bush says will cure our manpower problems.
SOD Rumsfeld today made it clear that his policy of reducing jobs currently filled by uniform military troops will go a long way to end the current, and forecasted, shortages. He noted that this policy is needed to empower the services to transfer more billets (jobs) into the Combat Arms (troops who actually fight the enemy).
The truth be told is a bit different. Rumsfeld has long been an advocate of doing away with uniform troops who work in jobs like clerks, cooks, personnel, etc. He claims these, and many other functions, can be done by civilians and free those troops up for combat duty.
However, according to federal personnel people, his master plan is simply to outsource those jobs to civilian contractors. Whatever troops are actually in those billets will be reassigned, or declared excess and more than likely removed from service.
In case your wondering, why do such a thing, well, the GOP has made considerable headway in reducing the ranks of federal employees. Since taking over Congress in 1994, the GOP has outsourced, or outright cut, hundreds of thousands of positions once held by federal employees. DOD is currently in the process of implementing a new civilian personnel program that allows managers to remove employees pretty much at will. In addition, it reduces the appeal routes for employees and restricts what their own employee unions can do to represent them.
I know this all sounds boring to most folks, and that federal employees garnish little, if any, compassion from citizens. But, when federal jobs are handed out in lots to the highest bidder, well, then those jobs become commodities and subject to all sorts of GOP influence.
Federal employees have a long tradition of service to our citizens. They have remained out of the political world. They carry out the will of the Congress and do so in the best fashion they can. They are also protected, or were, from partisan politics by merit protection and federal code. This was done not, as most people think, to protect fat and lazy feds, but to protect them from partisans who try to stop them FROM doing their jobs.
Federal workers have whistleblower protection, and many come forward each year to report some pretty bad and strange things. They also report abuses by career politicans and political appointees in government. We've seen examples of this lately when fed workers spoke out against Bush using the Social Security Administration as his own personal advertising agency. We saw with EPA workers speaking out against appointees abuse of EPA laws. And, at DOD, by the Contracting Officer who reported the abuse of fed contract law in giving Halliburton no bid deals.
If Republicans like Rumsfeld, Bush and Mr Corruption Tom Delay have their way, Federal Employees will be so rare and so boxed in that we won't have to worry about hearing from the very people who are there to protect OUR interests. Their jobs will be contracted out, and, well, no offense to them but contractors have ZERO protections and will be canned at the first hint of not towing the company line.
Americans all have a great deal to lose here. Whipping on federal employees has long been blood sport in this country. That must stop and Americans begin to realize that they need our support, nearly as much as their federal worker brothers and sisters in military. They protect freedom abroad, federal civilians here at home. The next time you hear federal employees put down, or their jobs cut out or contracted out, keep in mind what WE ALL are losing a large part of our freedoms when they leave.