Government is Good
Fascists slam it. When people learn what government DOES? They figure out that the ‘Deep State’ is US.
Originally appeared in Truth-2-Power.com on October 15, 2013 |
Revised completely on February 9, 2025
‘Demon government!’
‘The government is too BIG. Drown it in the bathtub.’
‘Get the government off of our backs!’
Government is the DEEP STATE. The government is Eeevil.
Extremist conservatives rant and rave, about gun confiscations, black helicopters, stolen elections, and other fantasies. They more quietly drop their purification of America. “Woke” education. Liberals as needing to be ‘eradicated.’
Extremist liberals rant and rave about the NSA, drones, and everything that Obama, Biden, and Harris didn’t deliver to them, on a progressive platter. Perhaps why 36% of Americans smugly stayed home.
For the rest of us, over the last few years, we’ve endured the unintended consequences of:
GOP shutdowns of the government;
The House Republicans’ embarrassing internal putsches of their leadership;
Disinforming the public to the point where fact is fiction, and fiction? Their truth.
Trump’s ability to outlast the legal system, and accountability:
Trump narrowly winning as president, and engaging in his anti-government reign of terror, over the last 21 days.
What we’ve learned, from attacks on the US military, the Justice Department, USAID, the Library of Congress, and more?
That government, overall, is good.
American political life, over the last few decades, has imitated comedy:
The Tea Party, then that MAGAts, in itheir mad headlong rush towards destroying America’s solvency, and sovereignty, has been doing us a very unintended favor. The political stunts, and now their billionaire-fueled, full-on putsch, remind us of:
how much good that government does;
how involved, as a generally positive force, that government is, in so many American lives.
The anti-Obama Teahadis cracked the ice for fascism with the Greatest Generation vets storming the WWII Memorial like Normandy. Then Trump ginned up the MAGAts to Wagnerian fervor as they tried to overthrow the government for him, on January 6th.
Trump 2.0’s Attempt To Destroy American Government Reminds Us for What We Fight
In Trump 2.0, the fascists have learned a lot about how government runs, and how to break it.
Immigration Bogeyman
They told the world that they were removing “criminal” aliens, then designated all illegal people as “criminals.” A 2016 report, by the Center for American Progress, noted two things. Undocumented workers contribute about 3% of the U.S. GDP, which equated to approximately $5 trillion, over a decade, at that time. They also noted that providing undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship, would boost U.S. GDP by a cumulative total of $1.7 trillion, over that same decade.
USAID is Deeply Invested, Not the ‘Deep State’
They picked on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), figuring that most Americans would just see it as “wasteful spending.”
What Americans learned, instead, is that USAID is an independent federal agency that’s responsible for administering civilian foreign aid, and development assistance, that prevents military needs, promotes democracy, and brings a whole lot of benefits to the average Joe, right here in America:
USAID was actively involved in responding to an Ebola outbreak in Uganda. Abrupt suspension of USAID operations, due to Musk/Trump’s shutdown, led to significant concerns, among health officials, about the disruption in critical health services, to combat Ebola, that might see it spread to other shores, including the United States.
USAID supports American farmers, through its food assistance programs. In fiscal year 2020, the agency purchased $2.1 billion worth of food aid from them. Agricultural research, sponsored by USAID, has led to innovations, for American farmers, like the development of greenbug aphid-resistant sorghum varieties. These saved American agriculture $389 million, in 1989, alone.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can’t keep us safe with Musk/Trump staffing slashing, and IT meddling.
We found out how much routine stuff that the the government does to keep us safe in the air.
Following Musk and DOGE’s engagement with the FAA, a tragic mid-air collision occurred over Washington, D.C., between an American Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter, resulting in sixty-seven fatalities.
Investigations revealed that air traffic control staffing, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, was not normal, at the time of the collision. One controller, handling duties typically assigned to two people, was linked to the Trump administration's workforce reduction efforts, which included offering buyouts to federal employees, including air traffic controllers, who received the memo, prior to the incident.
Prior to that crash, the last time that there was a major civilian commercial airliner crash, with a large number of fatalities, was in 2009, in Buffalo, New York. To date, not only have there been two crashes, two days apart, in Washington, and Philadelphia, but pilots, and controllers, especially at Reagan National, have reported a greater increase in “near-miss” incidents, across various airports. Reagan Airport reported at least 50 incidents, where aircraft had to maneuver, to avoid other planes, or obstacles, alone.
Despite the Trump administration's clarification that air traffic controllers are exempt from the buyout offers, the initial confusion, and ongoing staffing challenges, continue to pose risks to both air, and ground operations.
DOGE also has been criticized for its unauthorized access to sensitive systems by DOGE IT personnel, who lack proper security clearances, infiltrating FAA IT systems, under the guise of “enhancing efficiency.” The breach called into question the integrity of critical aviation operations.
Silencing Health and Safety Agencies Threatens Average Americans
Trump’s executive order, aimed at diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), saw several federal health agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) all dropping information about a wide variety of health and safety issues, that caused the advocacy group, Doctors for America, to sue the Trump Administration, for undermining doctors’ ability to provide necessary care, for their patients.
Americans Now Know More About What the Treasury Does
DOGE, and its young hacker-based, insecure IT team, gained access to the Treasury Department's payment systems, which handle over $5 trillion annually, including Social Security and government paychecks.
A senior Treasury official resigned, responsible for protecting the system, resigned, or was removed by Musk, for having resisted DOGE's involvement.
This allowed Musk’s employees, like hacker Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, a 19-year-old technologist, into one of the most sensitive systems in the U.S. government. He has no security clearance. He was hired by DOGE, despite being previously dismissed from a cybersecurity internship, due to leaks of company information. His past associations with hacker communities and controversial online behavior raised significant concerns about his suitability for the DOGE job.
U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary injunction to stop DOGE intrusions after 19 Democratic attorneys general sued President Donald Trump over Musk’s illegal use of . Musk, via X, commented that Engelmeyer was a “corrupt judge protecting corruption.” He called for the justice’s impeachment.
The Law of Intended Consequences
For every Musk/Trump action, there is often myriad other consequences, which has caused both mass outrage, and the Trump Administration to walk back many of its Project 2025-inspired slashings of government:
Virginia, has more government employees, and contracts, than any other state. $106 billion in federal contracts and, as of December, 2024, approximately 192,200 federal government employees. With an average annual salary of $112,665, they bring about $21.6 billion in compensation into the communities of the state. This filters down to every aspect of life, in every city and township in the state. Impact of Trump’s witch hunt for the “deep state,” could be severe.
Plans to cut up to $4 billion annually in federal funding for U.S. medical research by reducing "indirect" support from an average of 27% to 15% has already affected research hospitals, and universities, slowing, or stopping both active clinical trials for cancer patients, and many others with rare, life-threatening conditions, or diseases.
Aim at Foot. Pull Trigger
Much of what America has accomplished as a great industrial engine has been through government funding of massive infrastructure, research, and development.
In 2018, federal R&D investments directly and indirectly generated:
Over 1.6 million U.S. jobs;
$126 billion in labor income;
$197 billion in economic value;
$39 billion in federal and state tax revenue.
Science funding often might seem arcane, but billions in research have landed a man on the moon, developed rapid commerce and communications systems like the Internet, advanced medicines and health technologies, synthetic fabrics, high impact plastics and provided a standard of living for the planet that continues to rise.
Take just one target of the ire of Trump fans, fanned on by right-wing media: NASA, and privatized space companies. In 2022, the U.S. space economy contributed approximately $131.8 billion to the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), accounting for 0.5% of the total U.S. GDP. A study that analyzed fifteen NASA technologies that permeated into American business, from telecommunications, to better safety equipment, found that, with a research and development investment of $64 million, there was a value-added benefit of over $1.5 billion.
Government is about a system of laws that protect businesses and citizens from civil and criminal harm. We have the greatest law enforcement systems in the world, flaws and all.
Complaining about Government is the True ‘National Pastime.’
No one likes being told that they can’t do something:
A farmer bristles at a regulation that runs afoul of their fouled hog waste pond.
Fisherman freak when a limit is set on how much of a particular fish species can be hauled in.
Wall Street rails against reform of the practices that led to the 2008-2009 melt-down and the Great Recession.
The largest noise, though, always comes from the NRA, and the MAGA crowds. The largely white, largely Right folks who fear the rising tide of the minority majority more than they do the meat inspector, or the DEA agent.
When Trumpists talk about “taking America back,” does anyone ask from whom, or if you live South of the Mason-Dixon and wear red hats, and black shredded flag gear, from who?
This is why wiping DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) from America is such a big deal to the Trump Administration. These programs stand to reduce white power further, in the coming decades.
Is Big Government Really Too Big?
The “big government” lie isn’t supported by the data. Government is at its biggest during war years. Executive branch civilian employment decreased from approximately 3.4 million, in 1945, to about 2.1 million, by 1950.
While fluctuating, over time, that official number hasn’t really changed much, other than a reduction of over 300,000 employees during the Clinton Administration. It is misleading, though. Throughout our history, private contractors have been brought in when there are specific, or more temporary needs for labor, that shouldn’t be done by career civil servants.
Professor Paul Light, at New York University, estimated, in 2015, that the "true size" of the federal workforce was approximately 9.1 million individuals, comprising:
2 million federal employees
3.7 million contract employees
1.6 million grant employees
1.3 million active-duty military personnel
492,000 Postal Service employees
Government has a Civil Service to Avoid a ‘Deep State.’
Employees of the civil service are apolitical. They work for both Republican, and Democratic administrations. Trump is trying to bring us back to 1882, before the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883, which replaced “spoils based” political party patronage jobs with workers who served all of the people, all of the time, without fear of political reprisal for doing their jobs.
The civil service system promotes fairness, for all who come with business, or issues, with the government. It was designed to reduces the risk of corruption, favoritism, or misuse of public resources for political gain. All of which are things that Trump hates, as he has shown, both in his prior four-year term, and in the years since, a callous disregard for pretty much everyone other than himself.
The Hatch Act of 1939 restricting federal employees from engaging in partisan political activities while on duty, or using their official positions to influence elections. This would be the law of which Trump, himself, along with many of his appointees, have found themselves afoul.
What avoids a ‘deep state,’ Trump’s favorite anti-government rant?
Merit-Based Hiring and Promotion;
Legal protections for civil servants from those who seek to exercise political influence.
Judicial oversight. Elrod v. Burns (1976), reinforced protections against politically motivated dismissals of non-policymaking public employees.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is supposed to enforce these rules. Another Trump executive order charged OPM to offer a "deferred resignation" program, where federal employees could take the option to resign, effective September 30, 2025, while continuing to receive pay and benefits until that date. Such a program is illegal. Changes to federal employment compensation and benefits require congressional approval.
To try to break this system, Trump has signed executive orders. One directs that more people be classified as “policymaking public employees,” under Schedule F, which would expose them to being fired.
Is There Waste, and Fraud, in Government?
Sure. Every human enterprise, and every government, now, or in the history of humanity, has it.
It’s just not where most Right wingers tend to think it is.
The Far Right sells minority loafers and white-trash ne’er-do-wells sponging off the government. Waste and fraud more often than not comes from middle class and affluent folks ripping off the system, and government contractor rip-offs.
Between fiscal years 2018 and 2022, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated that the federal government lost between $233 billion and $521 billion annually due to fraud.
The greatest sources of government fraud aren’t welfare queens. Leading the list:
Doctors and hospitals overbilling for services;
A Nigerian fraud ring, “Scattered Canary” has sapped the unemployment program of hundreds of millions of dollars in false claims;
Contractor over-billing, falsifications to secure government contracts, and failures to deliver;
Wealthy tax evaders using offshore accounts to lower their income tax burdens. Would that be “wealth-fare” queens?
One of the best ways to root out fraud? The various watchdog Inspectors General that go after waste and abuse in government.
Who did Trump go after first? Them.
In January 2025, President Donald Trump dismissed seventeen inspectors general (IGs), from various federal agencies, without providing the legally mandated 30-day notice to Congress, or the required specific reasons for the dismissal. The latter requirement was put in place to avoid political mass firings, such as this.
Our Government is the Envy of the World
People in most parts of the world would tell you that, as governments go, we have one of the best in the world. More than a quarter of the world’s population has to pay bribes to get their government bureaucrats to do anything for them. While our politicians are, in the post Citizens United world of campaign funding, highly bribed, civil servants in the nuts-and-bolts side of government are pretty straightforward.
We take for granted all of those people who make sure that our roads are paved, our trash is picked up, and that our toilets flush. That our taps have clean water running out of them. That we don’t have to bribe a police officer to help us, and that the fire department won’t let our house burn to the ground without paying for their services rendered.
In a lot of parts of the world, those are unimaginable luxuries.
A lot of what government does is routine, boring, and absolutely necessary. Things that American businesses and citizens alike use to platform the success, peace and security which we consider “normal.”
So why is it that we seem drawn, like rubber-neckers at a major freeway accident, to listen to the rantings of handfuls of crazies screaming and yelling, amplified by an South African billionaire opportunist, an Australian propaganda hawker, and a few shovelfuls of assorted other nuts and whack jobs ranting endlessly into the airwaves bouncing off the ionosphere who seem to have been able to poison the public perception of government as this malignant force of evil?
We can laugh off the Pythons crazy counterrevolutionaries. We can’t laugh off Trump, and his MAGAts, as they move us towards a fascist oligarchy, and the end of our Constitutional democracy, that is the real “shining light” for the world.
It’s time to get the word out:
The Government is US.
Government is GOOD.