Civilian government workers didn't always have the image of mindless, indifferent, and/or incompetent bureaucrats sucking the life out of a struggling economy. They were mainly seen as unambitious, cautious types who opted for job security in exchange for lower pay; or as dedicated public servants devoted to teaching or law enforcement. Today, the image of the civilian government employee is much different. Instead as being generally regarded as public servants, they are viewed as overpaid, underworked bureaucrats who put in their twenty years, then live the rest of their lives on the public dime. The massive government work force, comprised of stupendous waste, fraud, and incompetence, has put a enormous strain on the nation's economy. If a government worker is too lazy or incompetent to do the job, instead of being fired and replaced with someone who can do the work, the agency simply hires more people to take on the task. Now government employees enjoy high pay, great benefits, and job security. In the private sector, if the job goes away, the employee goes with it. In government, if the job goes away, the employee stays.
The TSA
The Transportation Security Administration has become one of the most reviled agencies within the federal government. It's right up there with the IRS, and lately the GSA (General Services Administration), and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). Out west a lot of people hate the BLM, the Bureau of Land Management. Created in 2001, the TSA employs 65,000 screeners who work at 450 airports around the country. The agency is also made up of 14,000 administrators who sit in Washington, D.C. shuffling paper. In 2003, the agency became part of the Department of Homeland Security, itself an added layer of bureaucracy placed over several federal law enforcement agencies that are themselves grossly overstaffed with pencil-pushing bureaucrats. A detailed organizational chart of the federal government would cover the District of Columbia.
When something goes wrong in federal law enforcement, there are so many administrators and levels of bureaucracy, it's impossible even for Congress to find out who was responsible for the fiasco. The Fast and Furious scandal is a good example of this. In airport security, whoever is responsible for the way the TSA screens airline passengers should be replaced with--here comes a subversive concept--an expert in airport security. TSA screeners should be replaced with a smaller private sector force of security experts who, instead of groping, searching, and inconveniencing everyone, would profile and target certain passengers. This is how they do it in other countries where babies, children, old ladies, and regular flyers are spared these mindless, heavy-handed security procedures.
It has recently been revealed that TSA screeners have to be recruited through ads posted on gasoline pumps and pizza cartons. Moreover, they are being put on the job before their background investigations (using that word loosely here) are completed. This would never happen in the private sector out of fear of lawsuits and legal liability. Government agencies, because of sovereign immunity, don't have to worry about this kind of thing. This lapse in security has resulted in the hiring of TSA people with criminal backgrounds. As airline passengers, police officers have reported being patted down by people they have arrested, and frisked.
On April 24, 2012, two current and a couple of former TSA screeners were arrested for accepting bribes from drug dealers attempting to get cocaine and meth onto plaines at the Los Angeles International Airport. The scheme was exposed when a drug trafficker inadvertently got into the wrong checkout line, and was caught by a TSA employee who had not been bribed.
If TSA agents can be bought by drug merchants, they can be bribed by terrorists intent on getting on planes with explosives and guns. Instead of reforming the entire airport security program, TSA will probably deal with the problem by establishing another layer of TSA supervisors to keep an eye on the existing screeners. In government, bigger is always better.
The TSA
The Transportation Security Administration has become one of the most reviled agencies within the federal government. It's right up there with the IRS, and lately the GSA (General Services Administration), and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). Out west a lot of people hate the BLM, the Bureau of Land Management. Created in 2001, the TSA employs 65,000 screeners who work at 450 airports around the country. The agency is also made up of 14,000 administrators who sit in Washington, D.C. shuffling paper. In 2003, the agency became part of the Department of Homeland Security, itself an added layer of bureaucracy placed over several federal law enforcement agencies that are themselves grossly overstaffed with pencil-pushing bureaucrats. A detailed organizational chart of the federal government would cover the District of Columbia.
When something goes wrong in federal law enforcement, there are so many administrators and levels of bureaucracy, it's impossible even for Congress to find out who was responsible for the fiasco. The Fast and Furious scandal is a good example of this. In airport security, whoever is responsible for the way the TSA screens airline passengers should be replaced with--here comes a subversive concept--an expert in airport security. TSA screeners should be replaced with a smaller private sector force of security experts who, instead of groping, searching, and inconveniencing everyone, would profile and target certain passengers. This is how they do it in other countries where babies, children, old ladies, and regular flyers are spared these mindless, heavy-handed security procedures.
It has recently been revealed that TSA screeners have to be recruited through ads posted on gasoline pumps and pizza cartons. Moreover, they are being put on the job before their background investigations (using that word loosely here) are completed. This would never happen in the private sector out of fear of lawsuits and legal liability. Government agencies, because of sovereign immunity, don't have to worry about this kind of thing. This lapse in security has resulted in the hiring of TSA people with criminal backgrounds. As airline passengers, police officers have reported being patted down by people they have arrested, and frisked.
On April 24, 2012, two current and a couple of former TSA screeners were arrested for accepting bribes from drug dealers attempting to get cocaine and meth onto plaines at the Los Angeles International Airport. The scheme was exposed when a drug trafficker inadvertently got into the wrong checkout line, and was caught by a TSA employee who had not been bribed.
If TSA agents can be bought by drug merchants, they can be bribed by terrorists intent on getting on planes with explosives and guns. Instead of reforming the entire airport security program, TSA will probably deal with the problem by establishing another layer of TSA supervisors to keep an eye on the existing screeners. In government, bigger is always better.
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