The tragic Gulf oil disaster of the past five weeks finally focused Congress’ attention on the serious safety problems with offshore drilling. But why does it take a national disaster to get their attention?
A bill to make our food safer has been sitting in Congress, near final passage, for a year. It would increase inspections and help food companies catch contaminants before the food gets to our local supermarkets.
Both the U.S. House and Senate passed Wall Street reform bills, but now a final bill must be worked out between them – and the lobbyists will be pressing for loopholes!
The Obama administration says the federal government payroll will grow to 2.15 million workers this year. This number includes the military. There will be 1.43 million civilian workers on the payroll in fiscal year 2010. More surprising is that this number does not include postal workers. My source for this data is a Washington Times article dated February 2, 2010.
Despite this enormous staff our government has failed to provide the health and safety, protection for our wild life, or the security we desire.
The Food and Drug Administration has not protected society for a laundry list of errors caused by both food processors and drug manufacturers. A recent good example is Yaz and Yasmin. There are issues about its safety but the product is still being sold. Remember the Peanut Corporation of America? That company was selling contaminated product and was shutdown only after the spot light of the news media was focused on the issue. Just today there is concern about children’s over the counter Tylenol and other child medications.
The Securities and Exchange Commission had data warning about Bernie Madoff but did nothing to stop his Ponzi scheme. More recently the news reports that members of the SEC staff have been spending their days looking at internet porn sites. There has been no effort to ensure the accuracy of bond rating agencies.
The President fired his chief coordinator for terrorist tracking as the result of the stumbles that have occurred. The Christmas Day bomber failed as the result of his incompetence. The Fort Hood massacre plan went undetected. The Times Square bomber failed as the result of his incompetence.
Now we have the Minerals Management Services Department of the Department of the Interior that clearly has not carried out its responsibilities in the Gulf Of Mexico.
Are Americans supposed to have confidence in their government? Of course, but we do not. Is it likely that another president could do a better job? It’s not likely because the bureaucracy is too big. If the government can’t do the job then why are we paying those high taxes?
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