Sucker-punched by government

Last Sunday's column chronicled the gathering darkness enveloping the nation's middle class. Today's column reveals the extent to which the federal government has knowingly contributed to its growing desperation. Next Sunday's column will suggest a fix — a radical fix.

The American middle class has been central to the nation's well-being and economic prosperity for more than a century. Consumer spending, most of it by the middle class, constitutes about 70 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP).

When the middle class is employed, confident and secure, there is no stopping the American engine of democracy and prosperity. When it isn't, bad things happen — and happen quickly.

The nation's economic meltdown that began five years ago is a blistering example of things going south in a hurry. America's economic implosion and its dispirited middle class are nothing short of a national security crisis.

Americans have figured out that their government in Washington doesn't work. But they have no clue with respect to how profoundly and fundamentally broken it is. And more importantly, they don't understand that Washington is content with the way it is because it works for itself. Disillusioning as it is to comprehend, the hard fact of the matter is that Washington works for Washington, and it doesn't care that it doesn't work for us.

What it relies upon is our continued belief in a fiction that is killing the nation. The fiction is that most Democrats believe the problems are the fault of the Republicans and most Republicans believe the fault rests with the Democrats. As long as most Americans buy that false propaganda, we will remain pawns on Washington's chessboard.

Washington's corrupt system depends upon ignorance by millions of folks like you and me. And we play right into their hands. Look, for example, at a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll. It reveals that 42 percent of us don't know that Obamacare is law — 42 percent! Twelve percent of the nation believe Congress repealed it, 7 percent believe the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional, and another 23 percent simply didn't know whether it's law or not. Is it any wonder Washington gets away with murder?

In case you've forgotten, health care costs account for about 18 percent of the nation's GDP. Annual health care expenditures are about $2.6 trillion. At least one-third of those expenditures are wasted. That waste would fund the Department of Defense. And the uncontrolled expansion of the Medicare and Medicaid entitlements will soon swallow the entire federal budget.

Although Obamacare does little to deal with these problems, Democrats love it, which is goofy, while Republicans would replace it with the current system, also goofy. And nearly half of us don't know whether it's a law or not. Ignorance isn't bliss. It's a prison.

So you want to fix a broken Senate? Start by getting rid of the leaders, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell. They are small-minded partisans who have proven beyond a doubt that they won't grapple with our most pressing problems. The Senate must also amend its rules to eliminate the filibuster and the 60-vote supermajority that is currently required to pass a bill. That's called the "nuclear option," and it's desperately needed.

In the House, start by ousting John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi, both partisan slugs. Then abolish the House Rules Committee, which prohibits members from offering amendments to bills when they reach the House floor. Finally, it's necessary to revise in most states the partisan process that state legislatures use to gerrymander House districts. This process has created hundreds of hyper-partisan districts represented by wingnuts of the right or the left. The New York Times political maven, Nate Silver, has reported there are only 35 swing districts remaining in the House — out of 435.

But worse than the Senate or the House is the executive branch. Including the Postal Service, it has about 2.7 million full- and part-time employees. I don't call them workers because an enormous number of them don't do productive work. Washington's best kept secret is that the executive branch is an immense welfare system that stands in the way of good government.

If the federal employees who have no real jobs and those who are incapable or unwilling to perform the jobs they hold were eliminated, the efficiency and effectiveness of those who remained would skyrocket.

But the system, as presently structured, won't permit that to happen. Any effort to remove bad apples or people employed in sinecures triggers complaints of discrimination and harassment that then paralyzes the effort in equal opportunity employment red-tape proceedings that drag on for years.

In fact, the culture of the executive branch has become so stifling and self-serving that Cabinet secretaries, the White House and the president either turn a blind eye to its perverse existence or praise it. Last month, at the ceremony for John Berry, the outgoing director of the Office of Personnel Management, President Barack Obama said, "John has been a champion for federal workers — men and women who devote their lives to vital tasks." A few days ago, Michelle Obama continued her federal agency thank you tour at the Agriculture Department where she said, "I'm here just to thank you for the terrific work."

Some federal workers do devote their lives to vital tasks, but hundreds of thousands don't. I know. I worked for the federal government for more than 35 years.

The Shadow's writing "How To Cure Ignorance For Dummies," but Goldman can be reached at:  EmailMe

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