If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd be speculating that the new Medicare prescription drug plan was deliberately screwed up by the Administration in order to prove that government can't do anything right. On NPR's "Weekend Edition" this morning I heard a pharmacist say "this is the government which gave us FEMA." I think he's ascribing the blame to the wrong entity; it's not "the government," it's "the Bush Administration."
According to half a dozen other current or former FEMA managers who did not want their name used for fear of retribution, more than 50 people have left FEMA in the past four months. One official inside FEMA who has seen the agency's attrition data says 56 people have left in the past five weeks alone.[snip]
"They're getting out not because they're tired and want to work in the garden but because they're just sickened by the agency's failure -- very public failure -- and just sickened to see nobody doing anything to lift a finger to fix the problems," Bosner says of the departing employees.
The Bushies muck up everything they touch.
Posted by Linkmeister at January 14, 2006 09:54 AM | TrackBackand FEMA could've had me, and they screwed that up too!
all i can say from my personal experience being interviewed, screened, hired, and then ... misplaced by them, is i feel horrible for those in need who had to depend on them. nothing much good going on there at all.
Posted by: lizard at January 15, 2006 05:12 PMWe can argue till the cows come home about whether it's the Bushies at fault or some other mechanism, but the sad fact is that FEMA is in a sad state. It's not been particularly good for a long time either. Don't get me started talking about the quality (or lack thereof) of they're "flood studies."
We went through some attrition back with I worked for the feds as well. I was pretty nervous for a few months when RIF's were discussed. Eventually I left the federal service anyway.
Posted by: ruminator at January 16, 2006 11:41 AMBy all accounts it was a well-run agency when Witt was in charge during the 90s, and we've all seen what happens when people who have no qualifications are installed at the top. So I'd say whatever problems it has now began when Witt left and the Bush people took over.
Posted by: Linkmeister at January 16, 2006 11:55 AM