OPINION: You Can’t Drain the Swamp Without Making It Easier To Fire Federal Bureaucrats

In 2016, American voters thought they were electing a president, not millions of bureaucrats.

When President Trump called for the ability “to reward good workers and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people” in his State of the Union speech early this year, few Americans likely realize what a huge departure that would be from the current federal bureaucracy. In fact, under our current civil service laws, what seems like a very basic promise is totally unachievable.

In 1849, Lincoln emphasized the importance of the connection between the elected president and the policies carried out by his administration in a letter about then-President Zachary Taylor. “The appointments [of federal employees] need be no better than they have been, but the public must be brought to understand that they are the president’s appointments.” In other words, democracy’s relevance depends on the direct chain of command from the voters to the officials they elect, and from them to those who carry out the policies the candidate promised.

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