By Deacon Mike Manno
(The
Wanderer) – From the “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up”
department:
Last September, President Biden nominated one Saule Omarova
to be the Comptroller of the Currency. The Comptroller is to ensure safety and
soundness of the national banking system. It is a pretty important position in
the government and to say otherwise would be an understatement.
There was just a few problems with Omarova’s credentials
for the job: her alma mater was Moscow (as in Russia) State University and she
had no previous banking — or even business — experience. She also believed that
the government should assume the role of the private banking system and had
called for the bankruptcy of the U.S. oil and gas industry. Comptroller of the
Currency? Now who would think that would go well?
Of course it didn’t go well and in December she had to
withdraw her nomination.
But according to a recent report, this is “emblematic of
what has happened throughout the Biden administration. How does someone so
lacking in professional experience and with such views so way outside the
mainstream of American opinion get tapped for such a powerful position?”
That was the conclusion in a report issued this month by
Stephen Moore and Jon Decker for the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
In the introduction of the report, the authors laid out
their concerns:
“Americans are deeply divided on the Biden administration’s
progressive economic policy priorities: the focus on redistribution of income,
higher tax rates on the rich, more social welfare programs, pro-union policies,
a heavier hand of regulation of business, government-directed investment, and
climate change remedies aimed at a dramatic altering of America’s energy mix.
“But putting ideology and partisan leanings aside, a new
concern of voters has emerged: Do the top decision makers in Congress and the
Biden administration have the basic skill sets and business/management
experience and acumen to oversee a $6 trillion federal government and to
regulate our multi-trillion dollar industries?”
Thus they examined the backgrounds of the top 68 officials
of the Biden administration, starting with the president and including cabinet
members, regulatory agency officials, and White House advisers. What they found
was that:
“Sixty-two percent of Biden appointees who deal with
economic policy, regulation, commerce, energy and finance have virtually no
business experience; only one in eight has extensive business experience;
average business experience of Biden appointees is only 2.4 years; median years
of business experience is zero; the vast majority of the Biden
economic/commerce team members are professional politicians, lawyers, community
organizers, lobbyists, or government employees.”
In contrast, the Trump administration’s figures for its
similar administrators contained an average of 13 years business experience for
cabinet members with an eight-year median.
Some of the specific officeholders that were singled out
were Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg who is the government official who
oversees “the dealings with intricate supply chain issues at our ports and
other vital parts of our transportation infrastructure” as well as being the
governmental administrator of over a $1 trillion industry. His qualifications
for the job was as mayor of a small college town, South Bend, Ind., and failed
presidential candidate.”
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm “says that she doesn’t have
‘a magic wand’ to deal with rising gasoline and home heating costs, even though
her Department has helped kill vital pipelines and energy production and
drilling facilities that could be increasing the supply of oil and gas and
helping alleviate the crisis. She has had a hard time with reporters even
citing very basic energy statistics that calls into question her familiarity
with the critical national energy issues she is overseeing.”
Among others, similar digs were raised against Health and
Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra who was an attorney with no healthcare
experience; and Michigan State University economics professor Lisa Cook, who
was nominated to the FED and whose area of expertise is racial and gender
equity issues, none of which have anything to do with the job.
Not escaping criticism was Lina Khan, a 32-year-old college
professor with no business experience who was appointed chairman of the Federal
Trade Commission, an agency having oversight over multibillion dollar
companies. She will determine how much profits these businesses can make even
though she has never earned a profit for a business in her life.
And then, even though he is not a Biden official per se,
House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth, whose committee is to try to balance the
nation’s revenue and expenditures, has said, according to the report, “the
government can afford to spend and borrow whatever it wants and that Congress
can spend like they are the banker in the board game Monopoly.”
Moore and Decker noted that in this time of economic
uncertainty several key findings stood out: “The total number of years of
business experience of these top 68 policymakers is 161. This means the average
number of years of business experience for these policymakers is 2.4 years. The
median years of business experience is closer to one year of experience.
Forty-two of the policymakers have virtually no business experience whatsoever.
Only one in six top Biden appointees has extensive business experience. The
[research] shows that the Biden team has over 1.5 times more experience in law,
over 1.25 times more experience in politics/government, and only slightly less
experience in academia/policy than they do in business.”
In their conclusion, Moore and Decker chided the Biden
administration for its emphasis on diversity rather than on familiarity with
the administrative issues at hand. The one area that the Biden officials are
missing are “talented and experienced” appointees trained in business,
commerce, and finance.
“When it comes to the government: Ignorance is not bliss.
These skills are sorely lacking in the Biden administration. The cascade of
policy and management mistakes that are piling up in the Biden government are
at least in part a consequence of this lack of basic skills and competency.
Biden should fix the problem by replacing those chosen for their ideology, not
the skills and talents our government needs and taxpayers rightly demand,” they
concluded.
There is a lesson here for to all future presidents: Forget
ideology and checking boxes when you choose your team. Your only true guideline
is subject matter competence — that and a bit of common sense will go a long
way to achieving a successful outcome.
(You
can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com, and listen to him every Thursday morning
at 9:30 CT on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)
No comments:
Post a Comment