Undermining Trust in Government

I am not a big fan of the Rachel Maddow Show as the host of an information program--too much talking by the host, but last night she had a really good segment that I have been thinking about for a long time.  Here is the description of the video from their website. 

Trump doing a bad job turning word into deed

Rachel Maddow points out an emerging pattern in the Donald Trump administration in which the declarations Trump makes are not supported by the work to get those thing done, most egregiously in the case of the Russia sanctions he signed into law but never

THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW

10/26/17

DURATION: 21:59

They do not make it easy to link to a specific video on the MSNBC website for some reason.  Maddow makes the point that this new administration is just not doing their job.  They are falling down on the job from their pathetic response to the opioid drug crisis to the release of the JFK information.  This is one of the problems with Maddow's show.  She spent 21 minutes explaining this concept, but most American's do not have the attention span for 20 minutes.  Her commentary should have been written and published with a discussion about the highlights on her show with some expert, but that is just my opinion.  Here is a summary of the list of the items that she touched on:

• The JFK files were mandated by law to be released by October 26, 2017 and yet on the day of the release they withheld most of the documents.  This law was passed in 1992 and so the federal government had 25 years to protect some of these documents, but the administration waited until the last day to look at what they were releasing.
• FEMA has a disaster plan for a hurricane striking Puerto Rico, but they will not release it.  Maddow points out that either they are not following it or it is not a real plan.  
• The Opioid Crisis was declared a "national emergency" in August and another 10,000 people have overdosed since the President spoke those words.  Today, the federal government  declared a few steps below a national emergency instead proclaiming a "public health emergency." This comes without money or the urgency by all departments, and is not as significant as the national emergency declaration. 
• The federal government has not put in place the sanctions against Russia which were due on October 1.

Maddow focuses on how the media is not wired to cover a President who does not follow through on proclamations and hype.  I believe that there  is a bigger issue and that is calculated strategy to undermine confidence in the Federal government.  Maddow presents a good list, but it is much longer of big issues that they are neglecting:

• Despite all the fanfare about how well the recovery effort is going in Texas and Florida, the flooded and wind damaged homeowners are having to wait three hours on the phone everyday to get help from FEMA.  
• The large number of staff positions throughout the government vacant causes the executive branch to not be able to function properly.  There was a reason to put in place a deputy secretary of housing at HUD, and all those functions are neglected at this time.
• Springing travel bans and refugee policies on departments causes chaos in the airports, travel industries, and customs offices. 
• We have not seen any help for our ailing infrastructure including the water system in Flint Michigan or preventing forest fires or repairing the Metro in DC and Subway in NYC.
• The routine undermining of the nation's health care system undermines one sixth of the nation's economy.  
• The repeated attacks on the nation's voting system based on lies and exaggerations.  

Along with the issues Maddow mentioned, there is a clear pattern of making our government look incompetent.  I believe that is a way to fulfill the Reagan dream of cutting the federal budget by demonstrating its incompetence.  No one is going to care if the inept FEMA is destroyed and we outsource disaster response to small companies in rural Montana.  Think how much we could save if we destroyed the Department of Health and Human Services and turned all their functions over to the states.  If personal income taxes can be submitted on a post card and the staff delayed approving tax exempt status for alleged right wing "charitable" organizations, do we really need an Internal Revenue Service?  

This is an example of the members of the Executive Branch going after the very government that employ them.  It is like hiring a guy to be your CEO who publicly proclaimed that your company should be put out of business.  Who would do that?  Or who would put a guy who sued that department more than anyone else in charge of that agency unless they were trying to undermine it? There is a war going on against the federal government and we have a fifth column in charge of that government.  I believe that the person in charge is inept, but those within the government know exactly what they are doing destroying the government from inside.  

by Brian Davis