The OPM is another Federal Agency that must be significantly restructured and re-missioned, or simply eliminated. It symbolizes the problem that infects all government service. When management and labor becomes one in the same and the mission becomes not public service, but employee welfare, the value of the service depreciates accordingly.

In collusion with government service unions, these agencies are not unproductive in the service of the People, they are counter-productive. They essentially exist to consume revenues and expand exponentially, like giant cancerous growths. No one knows what they do and within the miasma of bureaucratic regulatory complexity, most Americans no longer care. Having completely lost the ability to provide oversight and corrective measures, these agencies have evolved into symbiotic parasites that serve each other's needs, but not the public interest.

It's estimated that about 30% of the American workforce is now employed by the various states and federal government. Essentially, all of these folks are unionized and, for all practical purposes, they are vested for life with job security and benefits that would make a member of the now defunct Soviet Polit Bureau jump up and down with glee.

Some would suggest that permitting unionization of government employees has produced a permanent Democratic Party voting constituency that skews the entire political process in a way that borders on legalized voter fraud.

Others have observed that a commonly accepted Democratic Party longterm tactic is to grow the public employee base to the point that all American workers are employed by the government. Together with unionization it's hard to imagine these folks having any reason to support the Republican Party, who benignly supports this reality itself, let alone the Libertarian or Tea Party, who would close down this structure bordering on organized crime, immediately upon taking office.

Limited government? You must be joking!

From personal experience: it's damn difficult, but it can be done. Keyword: DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT. Oh, ensure you have plenty of patience and time. Just be sure to STAY OUT OF THE WAY of the person being targeted. You do not want to get caught in the emotional tornado, lest you become a part of the destruction that the person leaves in their wake.

I'd tell you how NOT difficult it is, k, but don't have time right now, still at work saving the bad guys from having to handle their own appeals :-)

Way not easy enough... Know what one of my favorite lines was at work (mind you, my bread-and-butter job for 25 years was with a state dotgov), usually about a medium term (5-10 year) employee? "If we were working on the outside, they would have been gone about a week after I walked thrut he door." Another - "In the real world, it'd be "Here's your pacheck... Good Bye".

cases in point - I'll give you 3.

Employee 1 - 15 year veteran. This guy literally had 2 FILE CABINET DRAWERS of adverse information on him spanning back almost a decade, and it finally took him decking a co-worker in front of the entire crew - for no known reason anyone could discern - to get him canned.

Employee 2 - was a stalker and woman hater (not joking - this guy literally despised women, and would go out of his way to put them in harms way) was fired, went to court, got reinstated, got worse, and it finally took a court order to get him fired - because he was prohibited from being on "company" property. Didn't stop him from trying, tho.

Door, er, Employee #3 - 5 years when I got her. She was a system player, and right before she got adverse actioned out, would "injure" herself. She'd go out on "disability" for 6 months to a year, and they'd "give her another chance" on a new crew. She did this 4 times by the time I was saddled with her. Because my hyperliberal and fairly racist supervisor wanted her to succeed (and hopefully bring me down, as I wasn't "one of her people" - ug!) I was told *nothing* of her past, even when asked - until I happened to talk to one of this woman's former supervisors, who told me the skinny of her slithering ways. And started chasing the dragons tail. By the way - she STILL works for the same sub-department (I've long since left, thank God!) and was given a "special assignment assisting the manager"... at the behest of said former supervisor of mine.

So depending on what forces are in effect, and the wanting to keep the fellow looters in their places, it can be damned difficult to impossible.