Big or small government?

[mkpunk]

Rand is still somewhat like that with marriage laws and abortion so he isn't the best example of a libertarian socially.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by TheWiseWino

Too often federal workers protected by civil service rules work to thwart the best intentions of elected officials regardless of party.

Several years ago, a friend joined the IRS to be Commissioner of the IRS for Large Business & International (yes, there are separate commissioners within the IRS for Large Business, Small Business, Wage & Investment, and Tax-Exempt & Government Entities ). Prior to the IRS he was VP of Tax for a major Fortune 25 company; after his stint at the IRS, he returned to private practice as a partner at a major tax-focused law firm.

He tells the following story regarding his stint at the IRS.

When he joined, he was of course assigned an office, and an executive secretary (there is some PC job title for a secretary, but I don't recall it at the moment). Unfortunately, his secretary was on the other side of the building. So, he put in appropriate paperwork to move his secretary to be next to his office. This entailed moving some administrative person to make room for his secretary.

The person who needed to be moved to make room for his secretary did not want to make space for the secretary. So, she filed numerous protests with various entities that protect government employees to prevent the move. There were numerous reviews and studies and follow-on appeals and what not.

They tried to relocate a few other people to make space for his secretary, all of whom protested to prevent the move.

My acquaintance left the IRS after about 5 years or so. He was never able to relocate his secretary to be near his office despite his ongoing efforts.

If a Commissioner of the IRS in charge of auditing large businesses and multinational corporations cannot move his secretary to be near his office, what chance does he have of effecting real change to make the IRS either more efficient or more effective?

[TheWiseWino]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

If a Commissioner of the IRS in charge of auditing large businesses and multinational corporations cannot move his secretary to be near his office, what chance does he have of effecting real change to make the IRS either more efficient or more effective?

I do not disbelieve this for a moment.

The person in the office he wanted to use, has probably been with the government for decades and has seen commissioners come and seen them go. In between she/he have mastered the arts of intra-governmental warfare. Office location and information are power, to lose either is to commit bureaucratic hari-kari.

I lasted all of two years in Washington working for a public interest group, I left and vowed never to engage in public policy again, and I haven't despite several very nice offers. I was so inundated with alphabet soup titles and departments and "while that is a great proposals we can't revisit that issue since we did that last legislative regulatory blah, blah…" I was ready to move off grid and become a carpenter and that was before there was a grid.