76-04-B5
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The Politics of the Federal Government[edit]
Transcript[edit]Is the federal government a hot bed of political liberals? You bet it is, if you have anything left to bet after taxes. I'll be right back. I want to use these three minutes to recruit as many of you as I can to go into government service. No, I haven't lost my marbles or my principles. But you who listen to my views and find them worthwhile, are the very people who can straighten out a badly tilted government, and it's time we started. Here's the problem. Many of us have long felt that the great majority of high level federal bureaucrats favor government expansion and centralization, and that they put these biases into action in spite of the wishes of the people. Government programs are seldom designed by presidents and congressmen, and never by the man-on-the-street. They are designed and carried out by career bureaucrats with a desire to feather their own nest, and their nest is Washington, D.C. Now, there's hard evidence to support our belief. Documented in a recent issue of the American Political Science Review, and given wide public exposure by columnist Patrick Buchanan, the evidence is based upon a fresh analysis of interviews with 126 senior civil servants in 18 federal agencies. Although the interviews were originally conducted in 1970, these same civil servants and their proteges are still running the bureaucracy. What did the evidence show? Eighty-three percent of the super-grade career employees were political liberals. Ninety-two percent of the senior bureaucrats at HEW, HUD, and OEO opposed any reduction of social service agencies. Seventy percent favored an increased rate of expansion of the programs of these agencies. And this despite overwhelming evidence of the desire of the people to scrap the unworkable programs of the '60s and reduce the encroachment of government into their lives. Nor is this bureaucratic bias toward liberalism a temporary phenomenon. It has been building for 40 years, and it will continue to build till enough persons who value liberty above uniformity make government their business. Where do we find such people? I believe they must come from among those of you who are fed up with big government. So I am recruiting you who are looking for a career to go into government service. Your ultimate career goal should be not to end up with a good job in Washington, but to start in Washington and end up with a good job in your hometown, leaving behind a much smaller federal city. I must warn you that you won't get along with your bosses, at least not at first. But give it time. With enough of you coming along, they won't be able to hold out forever. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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