Who's Minding the Store?

Having spent almost 40 years ministering to prisoners and at-risk youth, I sometimes wonder what I might have done for a living had the Lord not steered me in that direction. Maybe I would have been a high-powered attorney or perhaps a history professor somewhere. I could also see myself working for a professional sports franchise, which was my original intention when I majored in athletic administration in college.

But then there is the part of me that would have loved running an old-fashioned general store (seriously). You know, the kind with rough-hewn wooden floors, bins of dry goods, and shelves stocked with daily necessities and a few novelty items. Of course, it would have to have a pot belly stove in the middle to warm my customers on a cold wintry day as well as an assortment of penny candy for the kids… and don’t forget the soda fountain with all kinds of different syrups and hand-dipped ice cream.

And yes, I would be the kind of guy who would allow my loyal customers to “run a tab”.

All of this harmless speculation brings me to the topic of today’s blog post, which is simply this: with 39 days left until Inauguration Day – and the entire world seemingly going up in flames – who is minding the store in Washington D.C.?

Watching President Biden wander aimlessly (and falling asleep) during his recent trip to Angola is all the proof you need to know that he isn’t the one calling the shots at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And listening to his incoherent speech on Tuesday touting the supposed “economic recovery” during his tenure reinforced that conclusion… even before his teleprompter malfunctioned.

So, one might ask, who really authorized the use of American long-range missiles in Ukraine? And whose idea was it to send another $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to African countries while Americans in North Carolina are still living in tents two months after Hurricane Helene?

It sure wasn’t President Biden and it sure wasn’t Vice President Kamala Harris, who has virtually disappeared from public view since November 5th. Yes, she did record that insipid video message to her supporters and yes, she and Joe did make an awkward joint appearance at the Kennedy Center last week. But other than that, Harris may as well have joined the FBI’s witness protection program.

And that, my friends, is one of the biggest problems with our bloated federal government. No one really knows who is in charge. Like Old Man River, it just keeps rolling along, being steered by a bunch of unelected officials and lifetime political appointees whose main concerns are promoting their own personal ideologies while safeguarding their lucrative government pensions.

Let this sink in for a minute. In 1940, there were a little more than 800,000 federal employees in the United States. That number spiked to over 3 million during World War II but settled back down to about 2 million after Hitler committed suicide and Hirohito surrendered.

Isn’t that just like the federal government? We allow it to quadruple in size during wartime and then the bureaucrats and bean-counters think they are doing us all a favor when they reduce it by one-third once the hostilities are over.

Today, 80 years after VE and VJ Day, the number of people drawing a paycheck from Uncle Sam – who draws his paycheck from American taxpayers – is back over 3 million. Few people would begrudge the Department of Defense its 772,000 employees, but I do question why the Department of Veterans Affairs needs 412,000 workers. The same goes for the Department of Agriculture (85,000 employees); the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (23,000); the Tennessee Valley Authority (10,400); and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (5,900).

Maybe if the Social Security Administration reduced its 58,200-person workforce, they could afford to give seniors a bigger cost of living increase. And does anyone else find it ironic – and more than a little ridiculous – that the “Small” Business Administration employs 8,000 people?

Then there is the Office of Personnel Management, which (according to its website) “serves as the chief human resources agency and personnel policy manager for the Federal Government.” I may be a little naïve but if we trimmed every other department by 10-20%, would OPM really need 2,600 pencil pushers?

Inquiring minds - and fed-up taxpayers - want to know!

Even more importantly, which of these 3 million swamp creatures is actually pulling the strings and running the show at the White House?