Abolishing Medicaid - First on the List

The goal is not health care for the American citizens.

The goal is the abolishment of "entitlements" - Medicaid, Medicare and (ultimately) Social Security.

They are coming to take you away, old friend(s). They are coming to take you away.

McConnell-Ryan Coup d'Etat

They are playing with a stacked deck and they are loving it. The House. The Senate. The White House. All in their camp. Revolutionizing our Democracy has become a slam dunk. Despite some troubling indications all is not well in the White House, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are riding the waves of Republican control to the limit. The substantial Democratic minority has been sidelined by unprecedented partisanship. Republican discipline of its members has formed an impenetrable front. No prisoners will be taken. No action against the White House will be pursued - no matter how grievous the offenses against our Democracy. The current power structure offers too many rich rewards to be sacrificed for ephemeral concepts like patriotism or honor.

My heart hurts.

What Good is a Professional Civil Service?

Why arbitrary firing of civil servants is ill-advised:

I suspect many of the businessmen who think government should be run like a business lack a basic understanding of what government is; why we even have a civil service; how proud the tradition of professional civil servants is.

Professional civil servants - teachers, policemen, firemen, bureaucrats, scientists, regulators of communications, nuclear energy, air and water quality, on the job safety, roads and bridges, the environment... .

We love to disparage the lazy, obstructive government workers. But do any of us really want to see the FBI, CIA, military, our local fire departments, police departments, sanitation workers disappear? I don't think so.

I doubt anyone would like to return to the spoils system of political cronyism that existed before a professional civil service was established to PROTECT the public good against capricious dismissal of trained professionals and their replacement with political stooges.

No system designed by human beings is perfect. A system based on entrance examination scores and merit generally is much preferred to one based upon the venality of self-interested political hacks.