Non-Essential means Not Necessary

Of the 800,000 federal employees affected by the partial shutdown of the US Federal Government, about 380,000 "non-essential" employees have been placed on unpaid leave.  This represents 47.5% of the total federal workforce.  When I read statistics like this, my first reaction is "HOLY $^&!!!  Is almost 50% of the government not necessary?"

As we enter day #25 (Tuesday, 1/15/2019) of the US Government shutdown, I begin to wonder... are all of the "non-essential" employees really necessary for our country to function?  If we continue with roughly 1/4 of the US Government shutdown and people don't take to the streets like the yellow vests in France, why do we need to keep around 1/4 of the government operating into the future?

First and foremost, any private or public entity that makes a commitment to hire and compensate someone for their job should be held accountable if they do not "make good" on that agreement.  Whether "essential" or "non-essential," government employees deserve to be paid as agreed.  Once the shutdown is in the past, they should get paid, legislators should have common sense discussion and/or debate on whether many of the "non-essential" employees should be retained long term, and if needed, released from their job(s) professionally. ‍

SHUTDOWN STATS & POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

‍The department of Homeland Security oversees Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard and the Secret Service.  Most of their employees are deemed “essential,” so they are working without pay until a funding bill is passed.  Nearly 213,000 of their 245,000 employees have been deemed "essential," according to the department’s contingency plan.  This leaves around 30,000 (13%) non-essential employees sitting at home.

Recently, the TSA has withstood criticism on its effectiveness and whether the federally managed TSA services should become the responsibility of the individual airports, carriers, etc. Now that we have services like TSA precheck and Clear, could we investigate a way to privatize airport screening and/or make the current process more efficient?  YES.... YES we could, but it needs to be profitable so that the best solutions can be determined by the market.

Customs & Border Protection and Immigration & Customs Enforcement, the Coast Guard, and the Secret Service are military style operations with the goal of helping to "secure our borders." Move them to the Department of Defence (DOD) and abolish the HSA, it's "non-essential."

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has around 340 deemed "essential" out of its 7,500 total workforce. This leaves 7,160 "non-essential" employees (95%) sitting at home.  So sorry, your FHA mortgage application will be delayed due to the government shutdown!  Wait, what? When did the gov't get involved in my mortgage!?  In case you were not aware, the government is heavily involved in approving many different types of loans and guaranteeing many of them through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

My solutions... get the government completely out of the mortgage industry and out of determining what companies, developments, etc. gets grants for low-income housing.  Local areas are better equipped to tax, appropriate, and manage the funds that benefit their local communities.

The Department of Transportation has around 55,000 total employees. 20,400 "non-essential" employees (37%) have been put on leave. This does not include most of the Federal Aviation Administration, where 24,200 are working, or the Federal Highway Administration, where all 2,700 employees are funded through other sources.

I do not know enough about this department to have a potential solution; however, in my opinion, the FAA, is one of the few gov't agencies that is "essential."  No one wants an airline traffic controller upset or unhappy about not getting paid while they radio out to 1000's of airlines approaching landing and/or departure.

The Executive Office of the President has 1,100 "non-essential" employees (61%) on leave out of the office’s 1,800. This includes most of the Office of Management and Budget, which helps implement budget and policy goals.  Of course the last thing the Government is concerned about is the budget.

As our country continues to exponentially grow the National Debt, it is obvious that the Office of Management and Budget was deemed "non-essential" sometime over the last 20 years.  If it's not going to aid and or assist in implementing a "balanced budget," get rid of it.

Zion National Park, in southwest Utah.

The National Park Service falls under the umbrella of the Department of the Interior and is operating with a skeleton staff. Under its contingency plan, some parks may be accessible, with others closed completely. The National Park Service is providing no visitor services such as restrooms, facility and road maintenance and trash collection.

National Parks are one of our nation's greatest treasures and should be fully protected and profitable.  As the current shutdown has progressed, many local groups have stood up to perform many of the duties formerly assigned to the "non-essential" park employees.  Many of the nations most popular parks have also experienced "overcrowding" aka too many visitors.  Regarding overcrowding, “We don’t have a choice,” said Jack Burns, who has worked in Zion since 1982. “We have to do something. If this going to remain a place of special importance for generations, we have to do something now.”  Here's a novel idea, treat park visitation and pricing using supply and demand. As demand goes up, so does the price (cost of entry).  Make all of the parks self funding and do not relay on federal tax dollars for operating expenses.

Here is a list of other services/agencies that are affected by a shutdown:

Social Security and Medicare: Checks are sent out, but benefit verification as well as the issuance of cards would cease. While unlikely to happen again, in 1996 more than 10,000 Medicare applicants were temporarily turned away every day of the shutdown.

Environmental and Food Inspection: In 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency halted site inspections to 1,200 different sites that included hazardous waste, drinking water, and chemical facilities. The Food and Drug Administration delayed almost 900 inspections.

Health and Human Services: The National Institutes of Health would be prevented from admitting new patients or processing grant applications. In 2013, states were forced to front the money for formula grant programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (cash welfare).

Internal Revenue Service (IRS): In the event of a shutdown, the IRS, which verifies income and Social Security numbers, would again not be able to perform this service. In 2013, a backlog of 1.2 million such requests potentially delayed mortgage and other loan approvals. Billions of dollars of tax refunds were also delayed.‍

IN REALITY (Private Sector)

‍Anyone that owns, directly manages, and/or is involved in the management of a business would be required to act quickly if they learned that 47.5% of their workforce was "non-essential" (not necessary) to produce their product or deliver their service.  What does the government actually produce?  The answer is NOTHING... The gov't produces nothing.

If a local construction company learned that they no longer needed 47.5% of their laborers to construct their projects they would have roughly 2 choices to make:

#1. - Procure more projects to allocate to their employees (sounds good, but takes time)

#2. - Layoff their employees (this one is easiest to implement immediately)

I cannot speak for all businesses but feel safe in assuming that the overwhelming majority of private businesses would not be able to "keep the lights on" for very long if they were forced to retain almost 50% more employees than were required to produce their product and/or deliver their service.

Why do we as citizens not hold our government(s) accountable for the same...‍

FINAL THOUGHTS

‍All the above is by no means a comprehensive list of the various departments and/or agencies that are affected by any Federal Gov't shutdown.  I also do not believe that our founding fathers intended our government to have the ability to shut itself down over one particular, or several issues, that cannot be resolved through nonpartisan compromises.

If we lived in an economically utopian country, the citizens of the US would see this as a prime opportunity to bring in "the consultants" and begin to trim the fluff from the federal workforce.  Doing so would not only aid in balancing the federal budget, but also restore faith in the ability for government to "establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity."  However, we will likely go back to "business as usual," and continue to have a large percentage of American Citizens asking "what else can the government do for me?" In reality the answer is "not much more than it already is without going bankrupt."

If you want to have a constructive conversation about this or anything else, message me, and let's grab coffee or a beer.

Have a good one,

Dan