I actually had a fun little ‘climate change’ story teed up, but, hey, things move fast, especially during a campaign season and a convention week, and this little story amused me
Exclusive: Trump could seek new law to purge government of Obama appointees
If he wins the presidency, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would seek to purge the federal government of officials appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama and could ask Congress to pass legislation making it easier to fire public workers, Trump ally, Chris Christie, said on Tuesday.
Christie, who is governor of New Jersey and leads Trump’s White House transition team, said the campaign was drawing up a list of federal government employees to fire if Trump defeats Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 presidential election.
You’re probably wonder why Trump would need a special law to terminate people who essentially serve at the pleasure of the president. In most transitions, the appointees, other than a select few, such as Supreme Court justices, simply leave. A few might be kept on if they were particularly good at their jobs, as a way of smoothing feathers, if they are rather non-partisan, or a combo of all three. The president can still let them go later, or suggest that they leave their post to spend more time with their families.
Trump’s transition advisers fear that Obama may convert these appointees to civil servants, who have more job security than officials who have been politically appointed. This would allow officials to keep their jobs in a new, possibly Republican, administration, Christie said.
“It’s called burrowing,” Christie said. “You take them from the political appointee side into the civil service side, in order to try to set up … roadblocks for your successor, kind of like when all the Clinton people took all the Ws off the keyboard when George Bush was coming into the White House.â€
Would Obama do this? If you think the chances are minimal, you haven’t been paying attention the past 7+ years. Heck, if he wasn’t, it would have occurred to him and/or his advisers soon enough. Shame that Christie had to give them the idea early.
Of course, places like the NY Times, Vox, Daily Kos, and Balloon Juice are having fits, with more available at Memeorandum.
Here’s a better idea (not that the above one is bad): Trump should state that he will have manpower studies done on federal agencies, looking for things like over-redundancy, over-duplication, and non-essential positions, much like in the private sector. Slim the federal government down through attrition. Someone leaves, you just do not replace the position if it is un-needed.
