WASHINGTON -- President Bill Clinton and his sidekick Al Gore start with the wrong premise, but you have to like many of the ideas they came up with in their plan to "reinvent government."
The Clintonites begin with a belief that big government is an essential fact of life in a 20th century industrial state, and that an activist army of bureaucrats can make life better for the nation's citizens. The aim is to make the government work better, not overhaul its mission.
"Today, the central issue we face is not what government does, but how it works," in the words of the 168-page final report issued by the Vice President's task force.
This is, at best, a dubious proposition for a government that plans to redistribute $1.42 trillion in taxpayer dollars this year and borrow another $263 billion from the public to top off the tank of government service. It is a national budget that exceeds the entire gross domestic product of Germany, the world's third largest economy.
Today's federal government is run by 2.1 million civilian employees, 800,000 postal workers, and 1.8 million military personnel -- the largest segment of the U.S. work force.
Those in the military are already getting squeezed by Clinton's shrinking defense budget, and an overhaul of the U.S. Postal Service is sending middle managers packing. But federal civilian workers have been comfortably immune from the sweeping job losses experienced most members of the corporate sector from IMB Corp. to General Motors.
So the Clinton administration deserves credit for acknowledging that the way the government does business is in great need of overhaul, not because of any shortcomings among the employees themselves, but because a ponderous and inefficient system has been built up over the years.
"Counting all personnel, budget, procurement, accounting, auditing, and headquarters staff, plus supervisory personnel in field offices, there are roughly 700,000 federal employees whose job it is to manage, control, check up or audit others." says the Gore task force report. "This is one-third of all federal civilian employees."
The report calls for eliminating through buyouts and early retirement some 250,000 federal jobs over the next five years, a 12% reduction that would bring the civilian work force below 2 million for the first time since 1966.
Most of these jobs would be in middle-management, white-collar positions, which is why federal unions representing lower-grade workers generally applauded the plan. Workers who actually deliver services to the public would generally keep their jobs.
Besides slashing the federal work force, the administration committed itself to a host of much needed reforms that can be implemented either by executive order of the President or through legislation. Administration officials, briefing reporters, conceded that the task will not be easy, and many of the anticipated savings to taxpayers will require legislation.
Still, the proposals are out on the table for public discussion, and many of them make sense. They would simplify government budgeting techniques, cutting back on paperwork costs and making it easter for agencies to put money where it is needed. They would make it easter for federal agencies to buy goods and services from private vendors, eliminate internal regulations that overlap, and give states and local governments greater flexibility to use federal funds.
Other proposed changes seek to give government workers greater latitude to make decisions on their own and to treat taxpayers like customers, instead of worrying about red tape that stifles initiative. Many federal agencies would be consolidated, and a number of field offices would be closed.
Republican leaders welcomed the proposals, giving Clinton a solid bipartisan base to get the needed legislation. If President Nixon could go to China, Clinton may succeed in the politically popular role of taking a whack at government.
