Bill Wood: Want to drain the swamp, first freeze all federal hiring
Donald Trump has vowed to drain the swamp and bring jobs back to America. He has had some success in a few isolated cases keeping jobs here. That approach is equivalent to bailing flood water with a bucket. If he uses the same bucket approach to draining the swamp, we will drown.
The late Adm. Hyman Rickover had a “comical” solution to the swamp in the Pentagon. He wanted to fire all the employees on the first four floors then let the people left on the 5th floor do all the critical things that had to be done on all 5 floors. President Trump has to do the same for the largest and most complex business in the world – the U.S. government. To effectively drain the swamp he needs to issue a presidential order freezing hiring of government workers across the board, except in uniformed services. Managers at all levels have to focus on mission-critical functions and cut the nonessential work that too many workers with too little to do perform. That process will drain the swamp in the most effective fashion!
Bill Wood, Oakdale
This story was originally published January 20, 2017 at 10:18 AM with the headline "Bill Wood: Want to drain the swamp, first freeze all federal hiring."