More About Government Reorganization: Start at the Beginning

Yesterday in this space, I offered an initial look at my proposal for reorganizing the federal government. I'll be giving you more details on it in the coming weeks, but I think I may have gotten ahead of myself. Let me go back a step and show you what I ought to have shown you before I wrote yesterday's post.

How many of you, Dear Readers, know what your federal government looks like? I don't mean in terms of neoclassical marble buildings or the well-PhotoShopped color photos of senior officials that grace agency websites, but in the form of a organizational chart? Here it is - click it to big it; if you still can't read it, you can find it online here:

Now envision each of those blocks on the chart expanded into its own chart. As an example, here's the organization chart of the Department of Homeland Security:

Now envision each of those blocks under Homeland Security as a large group of people with its own organization chart and budget. Go down another five or six levels (at least) and you'll eventually come to a single person sitting at a desk, being paid a wage and benefits.

That's a lot of people, who need a lot of money and a lot of real estate and office supplies. Many of them are hard-working, well-meaning people doing important things for the American people. Others are not. How do we separate the vital civil servant wheat from the political hack chaff?

Yes, Dear Readers, your government is too big*. Making it smaller and better will be very difficult, but not impossible. Starting next week, I'll go into more detail on the reorganization plan I proposed yesterday. I welcome your ideas and comments, as long as they're constructive. There's no shortage of people who are good at bitching and complaining ... what we need are thoughtful people with ideas who are willing to work with others to make things better.

Let's start the discussion.

Have a good day. Come back tomorrow to end the work week with another edition of Great Moments in Editing. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

* Want to see just how big it is? Start here.