Milking the system, playing us for fools

Dear Editor,

Trump did a lot of budget cutting and firings of government employees in an uncontrolled effort to reduce the cost of government. He arbitrarily cut staffing in departments throughout the government. I wonder did he ever supervise or manage front line workers? I worked with Human Resource Managers who never managed any humans, that was interesting. If departments are over staff and under preforming, firing 15 or 20 percent of the staff won’t correct the problems. If a department is over staff and underperforming you replace the manager. Moral and attitude come from the top down, not the bottom up. If the new manger must cut the staff by 20%, he will fire all the relatives of the previous manger and all the poor performers. Loyalty between employer and employee is a two-way bridge and takes time to build. If you achieve that balance a department will be far more productive and effective. We managers at the pharmacopeial firm I worked at had 3 ratings for our annual performance review, exceeded expectations, met expectations, and failed to meet expectations. When I received an exceeded expectation review, that review wasn’t accomplished by my efforts alone. We had 5 foremen, 2 secretaries and 50 skilled tradesmen. They all exceeded exceptions, we were a team. I feel for the good mangers who had their teams decimated by Trump and his efforts to cut spending to offset the billions in tax cuts by his Big Beautiful 1000-page bill.

Trump terminated all air traffic controllers who had two years or less of training. It requires years of training for controllers. What were they thinking? Today we have a servere shortage of controllers. Why are taxpayers subsidizing the airlines. The controllers should be their payroll. These air traffic controllers in effect work for the airlines. The private sector has proven it is more efficient at managing enterprises than congress. Trump just reduced student loans for nursing and other medical disciplines. Currently we have a shortage of nurses and medical assistants and a population that is ageing. What is he thinking?

During the government shutdown I was shocked to learn we have 40 million families receiving assistance in America. Entitlements were the second largest line item in the budget; today it’s the third, beat out by the interest for the national debt. During those 40 days of the shutdown many single mothers were interviewed by the media; all these mothers said they couldn’t buy groceries without their assistance checks. Where are the fathers of these kid? They have some responsibility to help feed their kids. When the members of ICE are done exporting illegals, they could pick up these delinquent fathers and present them to a judge who would review the responsibilities of fatherhood and consequences if they don’t. If a single mother with 2 kids is approved for assistance, 2 kids are the maximum for assistance payment she will ever receive. There would be no assistance for additional kids.

All too often a job applicant who, during an interview states “I can only work 20 hours a week or I will lose my entitlement benefits”. I understand most of those benefits stem from the Covid outbreak. Did Congress think of putting an end date on any of these programs? They are intended to help you get through a tough time, not to support you for the rest of your life. There are seniors, veterans, and handicapped people who deserve and need our help. There are too many milking the system and playing us for fools.

These are a few suggestions to reduce government spending. Early this year in less than 3 months we borrowed and spent $1 trillion!

— Tom Janicki
Almont