The Walter Reed Scandal

Whatever your personal opinion of Ann Coulter, she does her research and gives us some important viewpoints to consider. At Townhall.com you can read her column titled "In Washington, It's Always the Year of the Rat". She begins by writing:

Democrats have leapt on reports of mold, rats and bureaucratic hurdles at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as further proof of President George Bush's failed war policies.

To the contrary, the problems at Walter Reed are further proof of the Democrats' failed domestic policies -- to wit, the civil service rules that prevent government employees from ever being fired.

She also writes:

Unless U.S. Army generals are supposed to be spraying fungicide on the walls and crawling under beds to set rattraps, the slovenly conditions at Walter Reed are not their fault. The military is nominally in charge of Walter Reed, but -- because of civil service rules put into place by Democrats -- the maintenance crew can't be fired.

If the general "in charge" can't fire the people not doing their jobs, I don't know why he is being held responsible for them not doing their jobs.

As in my previous post about the public (i.e., government) schools, here again we find government keeping its own counsel and not responding to the taxpayer who supports it. What's up with not being able to expect actual conscientious work from government employees?

As Ms. Coulter points out:

You will find the exact same problems anyplace market forces have been artificially removed by the government and there is a total absence of incentives, competition, effective oversight, cost controls and so on. It's almost like a cause-and-effect thing.

An excellent point. When are we going to hold the government and its various entities responsible for their performance? Why do we persist in turning things over to the government and then ignoring what happens? How about doing something about it?

Now that the Democrats are once again pretending to give a damn about the troops by wailing about conditions at Walter Reed, how about some Republican -- maybe Chambliss! -- introduce a bill to remove civil service protections from employees at Walter Reed and all veterans' hospitals? You know, a bill that would actually address the problem.

Take a few minutes to read the entire column. Ms. Coulter shares some stories of things that happen in D.C. that ought to give us pause.