Plan B Forum

It's time to drain the musk-scented ramaswampy!

Having spent most of my working life in the USA as a contractor to the feds and state and local governments - including all branches of the military - I can tell you that most of these unelected bureaucrats are honest, diligent, careful with public money and technically very sound. Of course there are layabouts and ne'er-do-wells among them but in about the same proportion I have seen in private industry.

Rules and regulations set up by these unelected bureaucrats follow a well established path. Congress says - there shall be a law about how much shit you can put in a river. The unelected bureaucrats - sometimes employing unelected research contractors like me - work out what is an acceptable level of shit; how to measure it; how to police it; and how to keep an eye on it so you don't kill too many kids and bunny rabbits. They publish the proposed rules based on this research in the Federal Register, a daily publication which slapped on my desk every morning and anyone and everyone has 60 days or 90 days to say "Good idea!" or "You can't do that because reasons." Then they have another 60 or 90 days to address all the objections and say "Nice one, Andy, we hadn't spotted that." Or "You're full of it Andy, go stand in the corner." (I've had both.). It's all very open and works well. This is stuff Congress and the courts cannot do.

Thank you Andy. For about 5 years of my working life I too had a physical copy of the Federal Register on my desk every day. Never thought much about it at the time, But your post here brought to my mind that the comment and review process is an actual exercise in direct democracy. Probably much more efficient than writing a letter to your congress critter. I have been trying to imagine the result of sending the FR electronically to everyone. Some benefits in expanded awareness of what the federal government actually does, limited by the impact of apathy and the low level of the ability to read in the general population.

But a fun thought experiment.

snailgate

ex-khobar Andy wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 13, 2024 12:28 am

Congress says - there shall be a law about how much shit you can put in a river. The unelected bureaucrats - sometimes employing unelected research contractors like me - work out what is an acceptable level of shit; how to measure it; how to police it; and how to keep an eye on it so you don't kill too many kids and bunny rabbits. They publish the proposed rules based on this research in the Federal Register, a daily publication which slapped on my desk every morning and anyone and everyone has 60 days or 90 days to say "Good idea!" or "You can't do that because reasons." Then they have another 60 or 90 days to address all the objections and say "Nice one, Andy, we hadn't spotted that." Or "You're full of it Andy, go stand in the corner." (I've had both.). It's all very open and works well.

You forgot the part where someone who would be affected by the new rules gets an injunction to prevent the rules from being put into place pending these reviews and appeals.   In the meantime, during all those 60 or 90 day periods, nothing changes one way or the other, and an unacceptable amount of shit keeps pouring into the river.

-"BB"-