Giuliani’s odd plan to shrink the federal government

November 13, 2007

Presidential candidates, particularly on the Republican side of the aisle, like to talk about cutting spending, but usually hedge when it comes to specifics. Every program in the budget has its allies, and candidates are loath to burn bridges during the campaign.

Rudy Giuliani usually talks about reducing government spending by shrinking the size of the federal workforce. It’s politically safe, in part because the District of Columbia isn’t going to vote Republican anyway, and in part because much of the GOP base reflexively dislikes the amorphous “federal bureaucracy.”

The good news is, Giuliani was willing to get specific about his intentions. The bad news is, Giuliani continues to embarrass himself with comments that make him appear clueless.

He promised to end “overspending by government, overtaxing by government, overregulating by government and oversuing” by Americans.

To cut government spending, Giuliani promised to replace only half of the federal workers expected to retire over the next eight to 10 years. He promised to retain the tax cuts put in place by the Bush administration. Those two actions, he said, would require that average Americans take more responsibility for their lives. (emphasis added)

Far from an accidental slip of the tongue, Giuliani has actually been saying this quite a bit.

So, what kind of proposal are we talking about here? Government Executive magazine noted that 60% of federal workers overall and 90% of senior executives are poised to retire over the next decade. Giuliani thinks he’ll just not hire replacements for half of them, shrinking the federal workforce by about a third.

It’s a reminder that Giuliani, polls and fundraising notwithstanding, shouldn’t be taken seriously as a presidential candidate. As far as policy matters are concerned, the former mayor is a clown, not a wonk.

Josh Marshall noted:

[A]nother recent study says that over the next two years alone the federal government plans to hire 193,000 new workers for “mission-critical” jobs. And about 1/3 of those are in “security, protection, compliance and enforcement.”

The study also notes that most of those new hires are for the Department of Homeland Security for stuff like customs enforcement, border security and immigration enforcement. Presumably he’s willing to gut those enforcement responsibilities.

In all likelihood, of course, Giuliani would exempt government agencies he likes, such as DHS. This, of course, means he’d have to gut other agencies he presumably doesn’t like — Department of Education? HHS? — even more.

Brian Beutler adds that Giuliani apparently hasn’t thought this through.

[B]ecause he’s a Republican, he’d target federal jobs in agencies like the Department of Labor where we desperately need more, not fewer employees. But what’s really annoying about this is that the figure “one-half” is obviously totally arbitrary….

[Giuliani] is just making arbitrary gestures to constituencies he thinks will be happy to hear that he’ll leave “half” of all vacated federal positions unfilled, without any regard to whether the affected agencies’ functions are necessary or popular or whether a blindfolded slashing like this will harm peoples’ lives, and no doubt nobody in the mainstream media will meaningfully question the wisdom of this.

It’s mystifying. With each passing day, Giuliani looks more and more like a buffoon.

Can he look more like a buffoon?

  • Yup. He’ll just refrain from hiring for jobs he deems not mission critical. In addition, as Beutler noted, certain jobs in Labor, Interior, Education, NASA, etc. will be “discontinued” or left vacant indefinitely. Some jobs will simply be farmed out to private contractors.

    Also, he’ll double the amount Regent University alumni working in the federal government, to include important posts in the CIA, NSA, FBI, ATF, US Marshals, Federal Reserve, FEMA, and other unimportant government agencies.

  • ya know, considering the economic shitpile we’re just now stepping into, it’s going to be a great lesson to the american people what the importance is of these federal policies and programs. it’s one thing to want the guvmint off your backs when you’re working 40 hours a week and able to make the payments; but once this downturn takes hold and the already increasing numbers looking for food and shelter become visible in communities across the country — and they look remarkably like your neighbors — the contempt for the republicans and their onerous policies will be set in stone.

  • “Those two actions, he said, would require that average Americans take more responsibility for their lives.”

    So what group is he targeting here to “take more responsibility”?

    Reagan’s “strapping youn bucks who use foodstamps”, and the “welfare queens”?

  • I can’t wait until the debates in the general. I want to help prep our candidate to debate Rudy.

    “Let me follow up on your idea to gut the federal workforce. Would that mean fewer inspectors at the Consumer Product Safety Commission? Are you advocating more lead and date-rape drug exposure for America’s children, or would you exempt the CPSC?”

    “Well then what about food safety – will you further cut the number of food safety workers? How is it that Americans are supposed to take their own responsibility for protecting against deadly E. Coli infections in their salad and peanut butter? Build their own laboratory?”

    “How about the Department of Energy? Will there be any researchers left to explore renewable and domestic fuel sources, or will your reckless, random workforce cuts chain America to foreign oil and dirty coal for decades to come? ”

    “If all of those are exempt, who is left? Human services? So our parents and grandparents on fixed income will start getting their Social Security checks late and lose their homes and their health care?”

    Note to my Republican friends: Please, please pretty please nominate RooDee.

  • Gut social services. We don’t mind American kids sick and starving… as long as we have a war to watch.

  • He will outsource!
    You get less, but you pay more, and have less oversight. His rich pals profit, he gets a simplistic talking point to woo his simplistic followers, and nobody is there to blow the whistle on the corruption.
    So you see, everybody (that counts) wins!

    And to the Americans who need and use the services, go f**k yourselves, you don’t count.

  • More knee-jerk throwing of red meat to the base.

    “Those two actions, he said, would require that average Americans take more responsibility for their lives.” Note how he mentions that “average” Americans will need to buck up, not the above and way above average, or as Bush famously said about his base, “the haves and the have mores.” This average American isn’t buying it Rudy. We’re tired of getting screwed.

  • “Giuliani’s odd plan to shrink the federal government”

    You know, you pretty much don’t need to use the word ‘odd’ to describe anything Giuliani says or does any more – it’s pretty much a given that he’ll say something odd, no matter what the topic. There are only two Giuliani behaviors: Giuli-oddy, where he just says something strange, and Giuli-ugly, where the statement is also hateful.

  • If he’s going to leave have the spots in the FEDERAL military stay open, that could be a good thing;>

    The bad news is, Giuliani continues to embarrass himself with comments that make him appear clueless.

    And this is bad news for whom?

  • ***Can he look more like a buffoon?***

    Why yes, Orange—he could. We can pump him full of helium and fly him at the Macy’s parade next week. With a bit of paint and a bright red cape, we could call him BlunderDog!

  • “average Americans take more responsibility for their lives”

    I think what he means is that when the FAA is desperately short of air traffic controllers, it will be the responsibility of every airplane passenger to look out the windows for potential hazards and signal the flight attendant about impending collisions.

    Also, you’ll have to inspect your own damn meat.

  • Let’s apply a little math to this puppy.

    To cut government spending, Giuliani promised to replace only half of the federal workers expected to retire over the next eight to 10 years.

    I’ll assume Guil-oddly* knows presidential terms are four years long.

    So either he’s being wildly optimistic, can’t count or he’s throwing more red meat while tipping the fed. workers the wink.

    As with all GOPers I wouldn’t even try to guess which is the case.

    *H/T gg!

  • “The good news is, Giuliani was willing to get specific about his intentions. The bad news is, Giuliani continues to embarrass himself with comments that make him appear clueless.”

    Good news, bad news. . . don’t you mean that the other way around? Get as specific as you want, talk like a baffoon, and then get the nomination. Maybe then the Dems will actually have a chance.

    Not that the baffoon act didn’t go over well in 200 and 2004. . .

  • Not aggressive enough. I don’t think his cuts will get the damn thing into the bathtub.

    What I’d really like to know is how Ron Paul plans to gut the federal government – now there’s a man who has given it a great deal of thought over the years.

    Then Rudy could copy his plan, so he doesn’t sound like an idiot.

    But what does it matter while they’re playing to their base? All they want to hear is lower taxes, less government, and more war spending and they’re happy. And of course gay, flag and abortion amendments and the end of affirmative action. And more individual responsibility so those lazy louts, the liberals, have to pull their own oars.

  • . . . and you know, we wouldn’t need so damned much government in the first place if we didn’t have so many people to govern. Maybe this E. coli and lead poisoning thing, and letting hurricanes kill ’em isn’t such a bad idea. Getting rid of their access to health care – that might move things along, too. And we’d need even less government if we didn’t have so much far-flung land. Maybe Canada would give us a deal on Alaska – think we could keep the oil rights?

  • The GOP is so ready to ignore all the ridiculous parts of their candidates but with Rudy there’s nothing left. Why they allow him to continue to embarrass them on a daily basis says a lot about what is left of the party.
    The guy is such an obvious joke and such a waste of time and money. Have the republicans sunk so low that they can even pretend this guy is even credible as a presidential candidate? I expect soon Rudy will appear with a trained monkey on his shoulder to entertain us, since the cell phone bit isn’t working anymore.
    Here’s a question for ya’ Rudy…what happened to all the gold from the WTC? The workers got an unattended truck full of it in the tunnels headed away from the towers but that only amounted to a few million…there was over a billion at the WTC. Why was the crime scene locked down so not even FEMA could get in until you had it all scraped up and shipped to China to be destroyed? Were you promised anything Rudy? Why else would such a joke still be considered viable by the press as a presidential candidate?

  • Sounds about right for him…He is not the most remarkable person in the world. But then again, not the most impressive either.

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