Comment on the following questions (all three) explaining your reasoning fully.

1. How can you account for the poor image that much of the bureaucracy has with the American public?  Is the image justified, given your study in this chapter?  Give examples to illustrate your viewpoint from at least two of  the websites listed in the attachment (called “Bureaucracy horrors“)concerning the EPA, USDA, FDA, orTSA   You must report in a brief summary on either two separate cases from one agency or two separate agencies (EPA, USDA, FDA, or TSA).  You will find this information horrific but it’s going on and you need to be aware.  I have given you one general website and then some specific ones. When I checked them out earlier, they all worked.  Some of them may link you to other websites and that’s fine.  Be sure to put the website you used by each of your two example summaries. Remember if you can’t open a website, try copying and pasting into your  before emailing me. Bureaucracy horrors.docx
2. Should firing government employees be made easier than it presently is?  What consequences of such a reform might result?
3. Given your readings in this chapter and any other research you might do,  how do you now feel about government waste?  Can it be controlled?  By whom? Give me an example that you found in the information found on the “Wastebook” link – not something that I have already mentioned.  One little tidbit I just read concerned waste in the White House that you might find interesting.  “There are 110 fewer employees on the White House staff under Trump than under Obama at this pint (October, 2017) which has resulted in a savings of $5.1 million”. I have also copied some of the information from the “Wastebook” below. Wastebook – Tom Coburn.pdfHere are a couple of  other examples I found that will give you pause to think:

The Lansing State Journal in Michigan reported: “DHS Director Marianne Udow said the state must make a difficult decision: cut money for food banks and homeless shelters for the living or cut money for burials for the dead. ‘It’s a terrible choice to have to make,’ Udow said.” Just two weeks earlier, Michigan was planning to spend $38 million on iPods for schoolchildren. – What’s wrong with this picture? Amazing!?

The Government Horseshoer Posted by John Stossel | August 20, 2012

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/stossel/blog/2012/08/20/government-horseshoer#ixzz24Bgnkgaj (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

How many government workers does it take to fix a broken faucet? Answer: more than 200.

First, you need dozens to fill out paperwork. Then, you need someone to change the horseshoes of the department’s imaginary horses. Then –

-Wait. Horseshoes?

Sadly, it’s not a joke. The Mackinac Center’s Jarrett Skorup reports (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.:

Despite having no horses, the water and sewerage department for the city of Detroit employs a horseshoer.

Yet even with a department so bloated that it has a horseshoer and no horses, the local union president said it is “not possible” to eliminate positions…

The horseshoer costs the city $56,245 (including benefits.)

Despite the absurdity of the bankrupt city paying a horseshoer,

John Riehl of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 207 told the Detroit Free Press that the department needs more workers.

“They don’t have enough people as it is right now,” Riehl said.

Only a government would spend money on a horseshoer with no horses. Only a government workers’ union would then complain about not having enough workers.

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/stossel/blog/2012/08/20/government-horseshoer#ixzz24Bh1hMkQ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

You may use any one of these six although I would expect you to find more details on the one you use by completing more extensive research.

HERE ARE THE TOP SIX MOST RIDICULOUS THINGS THE GOV’T SPENDS TAX DOLLARS ON – (FROM THE WASTEBOOK)

Dec. 17, 2013 10:12am Becket Adams (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

The office of Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on Tuesday released a 177-page overview of questionable projects that have been allotted nearly $30 billion in federal funds.

From $15,000 spent on a project involving the collection of thousands of gallons of human urine (page 76 of the report (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.) to $5 million spent on crystal stemware for the U.S. State Department (page 75 of the report (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.) to the $3 million NASA plans to spend on studying Congress, Coburn’s fourth annual “Wastebook” report is one example of out-of-control government spending after another.

“When it comes to spending your money, those in Washington tend to see no waste, speak no waste and cut no waste,” Coburn said in the report.

Here are six bizarre examples of “egregious federal spending” in Coburn’s “Wastebook 2013”:

6. UNCLE SAM LOOKING FOR ROMANCE ON THE WEB – $914,000

The Popular Romance Project has received nearly $1 million in federal funds from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) since 2010, “Wastebook 2013” reported.

The purpose of the program is to “explore the fascinating, often contradictory origins and influences of popular romance as told in novels, films, comics, advice books, songs, and internet fan fiction, taking a global perspective—while looking back across time as far as the ancient Greeks.”

The project received approximately $914,000 in fiscal year 2013.

“Taking love and its stories seriously, wherever they may be found, the Popular Romance Project will spark a lively, thoughtful conversation between fans, authors, scholars, and the general public about the writing, production, and consumption of popular romance, including its history and transformation in the digital age,” the project’s site reads.

Some of the recent topics discussed by the project include the popular teen book series “Twilight” and the Carly Rae Jepsen’s bubblegum pop song “Call Me Maybe.”

5. PAID TO DO NOTHING (GOVERNMENT-WIDE) — APPROXIMATELY $400 MILLION

It cost approximately $2 billion to provide back pay to federal employees “for services that could not be performed” due to the 16-day partial government shutdown, according to the White House.

“Total compensation costs, including benefits, are about 30 percent larger, in the range of $2.5 billion,” the White House report said.

Coburn’s report adds: “More than 100,000 non-essential federal employees being paid a salary of at least $100,000 were furloughed as non-essential. Each of these was paid $4,000 for the time off of work during the shutdown.”

The “Wastebook” report stresses that Congress is more to blame for this than the civil servants who received pay for “services that could not be performed.”

“(L)ike everyone else, (civil servants) have bills to pay,” the report reads. “But it is truly unfair to charge billions of dollars to pay others not to work to taxpayers working to cover their own bills and the bills of the government. This is especially true when the non-essential federal employee is being compensated more than twice the average U.S. family income of $51,000.”

4. A WHOLE BUNCH OF MONEY FOR A “MOOSICAL” — $10,000

The National Endowment of the Arts awarded approximately $10,000 for a Christmas-themed show titled “Mooseltoe: A New Moosical.”

The show will be touring the nation this Christmas.

“Taxpayer dollars pay for ‘Mooseltoe’ to feature voices from celebrities from Broadway, television, and movies, as well as costumes from the costume designer of Broadway’s ‘The Lion King,’” the report says.

“In addition to its original songs, parents will appreciate the 16 characters in ‘Mooseltoe’ that are entertaining their children on the taxpayers’ dime, including three snobby penguins, a mobster snowman, and a fat walrus,” it adds.

Again, $10,000.

3. A MEGA-BLIMP THAT DOESN’T WORK — $297 MILLION

The U.S. Army spent nearly four years and $300 million developing a mega-blimp that it eventually scraped. The blimp was designed to be the size of a football field and would be used to perform surveillance duties in Afghanistan.

But in 2013, the Army decided it had enough of the blimp .

“(T)he Army closed the blimp’s eye forever when it brought the project to a halt after spending nearly $300 million,” Coburn’s report reads. “The Army sold the airship back to the contractor that was building it for just $301,000.”

2. NASA PAYS TO STUDY HOW CONGRESS WORKS — $3 MILLION

NASA plans to spend nearly $3 million to study how Congress works.

The agency plans to hold seminars that will provide participants with “a comprehensive look at how Congress is organized, the key players and their roles, how the legislative process really works, and how Congress directly affects the daily operations of every department and agency in the Executive Branch.”

Seminars hosted by NASA and Georgetown University will also provide participants with “briefings from experts in the field,” opportunities “to attend committee hearings, and observe floor action.”

Participants will be given a “hands-on understanding of the congressional process and procedures as well as the culture that is the United States Congress,” NASA said.

The program is expected to cost NASA around $3 million starting December 2012 and running trough December 2017.

1. NEARLY $300,000 FOR A VIDEO GAME

The National Endowment of the Humanities has awarded a professor at Hope College nearly $300,000 for a multi-player game that connects Civil War re-enactors online.

The game, titled “Valley Sim,” allows students to “take on the identity of one of 25 real-life citizens of two communities that were on opposite sides of the Civil War.”

The game is based almost entirely on an Internet chat system.

“The NEH grant will be used to expand the basic framework of the game into a tool that can be applied to other areas of the humanities,” the Coburn report adds. “Perhaps we’ll see Battlefield or Call of Duty replacing WWII lectures? Or maybe the money can prop up something less wasteful in the realm of higher education. As cool as it might be to introduce games into the classroom, it might be a better idea to convince students to put the controller down and get back to the basics instead.”

Keep in mind the above are just six examples of the dozens and dozens of bizarre projects unearthed by Sen. Coburn’s office. There are many, many more contained in the report. Some are simply puzzling (money for alcohol for a dry county) and some are infuriating ($52,000 in continued pay for Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan).

Read the full report here (click on the link and scroll down to the bottom) :

ase Study Analysis Guidelines

The case study method is a form of stimulation aimed at providing students with an understanding of the complexities relating to specific circumstances faced on the job. A case study should contain a complete description of an issue including all known events, people, and other impacting factors. It represents a situation/concern to be analyzed and resolved. Case studies should allow students to:

· Ask (or ask themselves) questions that help extract key information from a case

· Diagnose the case

· Define all the different issues involved in the case

· Make well thought out, fact-based decisions

· Formulate principles for handling future cases

In the field of public administration, the case study method is “an action plan” for resolving community issues. It provides clarity of purpose for what needs to be accomplished to effectively connect citizens to governance.

“Few public administrators expect ever to find a ‘one size fits all’ issue resolving approach for the vast range of circumstances/concerns that they are likely to encounter” (Public Administration – The Profession and the Practice).

Principles for Creating a Case Study Analysis

Each case should focus on a single issue/situation clearly delineated in one or two sentences, at most, and separated from paragraphs so as to easily determine what it is we are about to address.

A case study analysis must contain all the data necessary to arrive at a recommendation for resolution:

· Facts and events of the case

· Feelings, habits, attitudes, and expectations of the key stakeholders

· A clear description of the setting (time, place, and physical and social environment)

Steps in Creating a Case Study

1. Identify the Issue

· Must illustrate one or several specific principles.

· Will constitute the heart of the case study and thus influence all parts including how it is represented.

· Case studies are stories; they teach what stories teach – which happens to be what administrators most need to learn.

· Create an Outline of the Case Study

· Select facts and incidents that will be easily recognized and understood by participants.

· Organize these in a logical sequence. Remove any inflated or exaggerated components that might diminish the authenticity of the case.

2. Identify the Stakeholders

· Clearly identify each stakeholder in terms of his/her position.

· Write up the case study.

· Whether the case study is short or long, present a clear, concise, and coherent portrait of the stakeholders, events, and information.

· Use a writing style that is simple and direct – no long winded dissertations – one that speaks right to the reader.

· Occasionally include brief dialogues to create interest and allow readers to hear what the stakeholders in the case study have to say for themselves.

· In the case introduction, present your key stakeholders and provide information that clearly identifies him/her/them.  Establish the relationship between the stakeholders and the issue under study. Include the organizational context.

· Recount events or incidents in chronological order.

· Occasionally use “flashbacks” to fill in gaps or heighten the sense of realism in the case. In certain case studies, you may have events overlap, occur simultaneously, or repeat themselves.

· In the concluding sentence or paragraph of the case study, point out the need for some form of action: a decision, a recommendation for resolution, a weighing of alternatives, or a combination of these.

· End with a bridge of some sort that leads from your case study presentation to participant discussion. Three types of conclusion are frequently used: 1) open-ended conclusion: the participants define the facts and problems, 2) directed conclusions: specific questions, tasks, or even a quiz following a case study, 3) closed conclusions: a textbook solution is provided at the end of the case study.

3. Identify Stakeholder Perspectives

· Understand that public administration is politics – not the “obvious politics” of high stakes electioneering and policy making, but the “other politics” of small-scale, behind the scenes problems solving: the nature of administrative casework follows accordingly.

· Stories don’t come ready-made but must be formed through selection and shaping from the flow of events: “Case synthesis precedes case analysis.”

· Keep your eye on the entire set of interacting decision-makers and interlocking policies: it’s there you are most likely to find any lurking problems of under-determination.

· It’s usually helpful to break out the goals being pursued, the variables that must be modified to move toward the goals, and the criteria to be borne in mind when pursuing the goals; it’s in those criteria that problems of over-determinationare likely to originate.

· Remember Mile’s Law: “Where one stands depends on where one sits.”

· Search for the paradigm of the case, but expect departures from the underlying pattern; explore the progression of circumstances.

4. Make a Recommendation

· Cases involve choices; in a democracy, choice demands justification, which further implies a process of dialogue and an effort at persuasion.

· An effective administrative analyst must be ready to “speak in tongues;” expect to work in a variety of idioms and vocabularies.

· Most important of all: Trust your own experience and instincts!

“It is the object of administrative study to discover, first, what government can properly and successfully do, and secondly, how it can do these proper things with the utmost possible efficiency and the least possible cost either of money or of energy.” – Woodrow Wilson