POLITICS, GOVERNMENT
Haley’s Job-Limit Idea: Another GOP Attack on Federal Workers
Running our government requires expertise, nonpartisanship
Few people would take a professional job that they were mandated to leave within five years — just when they are gaining knowledge, confidence and connections.
It would create chaos, low morale and brain drain in any workplace. It would be especially disastrous for the federal government, where citizens expect some skill to managing our tax money, ensuring our safety and providing a range of other services.
Yet, GOP presidential contender Nikki Haley has proposed a time limit. “We won’t just have term limits for politicians — we will limit bureaucrats, too,” she said in a recent debate. ”No bureaucrat should hold the same position for more than five years.”
This is a disappointing idea from the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, who is attracting support in an uphill effort against former president Donald Trump. It seems a desperate effort to one-up Trump’s attacks on “the deep state.”
While a U.S. president can choose about 4,000 top-level appointees, the people who do the nitty-gritty work are hired based on merit and exams. The move from a full patronage…
