Fire first, ask questions later

If I were a guy who was in charge of making government more efficient, I would want to carry out the job in an – for lack of a better word – efficient manner. Sort of like setting an example for how to run a government agency.

Or, if efficient is too vague a concept for a brand-new government agency, then how about competent? Or, how about just knowing my butt from my elbow?

Instead, we have a very rich bull in a very expensive china shop breaking things right and left and there is no sign in sight that says, “you break it, you bought it.” No, the damage will be paid for by the people who usually pay for it, you and me.

Here’s a short list of some breakage that needed fixing:

• 350 employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration in the Energy Department who build, maintain, and safeguard our nuclear weapons systems were fired only to be hunted down like lost diamond rings in a trash bin and rehired. I do not believe that this firing was done at the request of the Russian or Chinese governments, but it has crossed my mind.

• At the U.S. Department of Agriculture, employees of a small agency that studies animal diseases were let go, then quickly rehired. The particular animal disease they were working on was “bird flu.” There is a greater concern here than the skyrocketing cost of eggs due to the 160 million chickens that had to be destroyed since the disease was discovered in 2022. That would be the potential for a COVID-like number of dead Americans if and when the disease mutates to include humans as its targets. Probably best to have a few employees around to keep an eye on things.

These are very small numbers in the overall scheme of decimating the US government workforce, but they are critical government positions for keeping Americans safe.

There are a number of old sayings which should have come into an adult-thinking brain here: “haste makes waste,” “make haste slowly,” “speed kills,” or maybe even “don’t drink and drive.”

If the object is to make government run efficiently, so far they are doing a bad job of it.

But if the object is to create chaos, terrify federal employees and their families, and give aid and comfort to our enemies, then they are right on target. And I do not believe that the idea is to make government more efficient or to improve government in any way. I believe that the object is to make the American government inoperable.

You do not go about cutting costs in government by taking 10,000 from column A and 15,500 from column B. You have to have an understanding of the job and what it does. You have to know your butt from your elbow. These people do not. Neither do they care about knowing.

In fact, not knowing what you are doing is an asset in this line of creating carnage. For those who dislike government in general, this has got to be fun to watch. We will see how much fun it is when the missiles do not make it out of their silos near Great Falls or the farm payments don’t come on time and the income tax refunds are delayed, not to mention the Social Security payments.

I would very much like to be wrong about everything I have written here, but we will know soon enough.

Jim Elliott served 16 years in the Montana Legislature as a state representative and state senator. He lives on his ranch in Trout Creek.